24 MANURES. 



pulverize them. They should then be composted with a 

 mixture made of lime and salt, as directed in the next para- 

 graph, using four bushels of the mixture to one cord of the 

 peat or muck ; this should be done under cover, so as to 

 keep off rain, which would cause the mixture to leach out 

 and so weaken its strength. It should be allowed to lay for 

 a month or six weeks, when it may be used in mixing with 

 the manure, the quantity to be used depending upon the 

 character and quality of the manure; enough must be used 

 to prevent the escape of any offensive odors, which, as we 

 have already stated, indicates the escape of the fertilizing 

 gases ; but as a general rule, one-third of green or fresh 

 manure to two-thirds of the peat or muck will be a proper 

 proportion. 



To make the dissolving mixture referred to above, take 

 three bushels of lime, as freshly burned as possible, and 

 dake it with water in which one bushel of salt has been 

 dissolved, using only just enough of water to dissolve the 

 salt. Mix it well and keep it under cover, and let it be ten 

 or fifteen days old before using. Lime alone will decom- 

 pose peat or muck, but it is far less powerful than when 

 combined with salt as above. It should alivays be applied 

 in a dry and fresh state, not air or water slaked. 



Unleached wood ashes, applied at the rate of twenty- 

 five bushels to a cord of muck, will also decompose it. The 

 sparlings or refuse of potash warehouses, applied at the 

 rate of from twenty to one hundred pounds to a cord, will 

 also have a like effect. 



When dry earth is used as an absorbent, it should be 

 mixed about half and half with the manure, moistening it 

 with a weak solution of sulphuric acid oil of vitriol about 

 one pound of acid to forty-five or fifty gallons of water. 

 This takes up the volatile ammonia which arises from the 



