72 The Manure ^lestion. 



THE MANURE QUESTION. 



The subject of fertilizers is one of the most important that can pos- 

 sibly engage the attention of cultivators of the ground, whether on a 

 small or a large scale. From various quarters complaints come to us 

 of the difficulty of procuring the manures wanted in gardens. This 

 deficiency is especially felt by those living in localities' where the love 

 of gardening has extended so as to create a demand for manures, which 

 was formerly supplied by such as could be bought of persons who kept 

 horses or cows, but had no gardens of tlieir own. This source is now 

 quite insufficient, and is every year growing more so. Thirty or forty 

 years ago, wood was the only fuel used in New England, and wood 

 ashes — unleached or leached, in either case, but especially the former, 

 one of the most valuable fertilizers — were easily obtained. To-day, in 

 all our cities and large towns, coal is used much more generally than 

 wood, and every year diminishes the number of wood burners, even far 

 into the interior of New England. 



But what has become of all the manure that has been applied to the 

 ground since men began to dig it and dung it ? The greater part of it 

 — of such, at least, as has been taken up by the crops which it was 

 designed to enrich — has been consumed by men and animals ; a part 

 of it has entered into the substance of their bodies, a large part has been 

 excreted from their bodies, passing into the air in a gaseous form, to be 

 washed down on to the earth by the rain, — some of it where it was 

 wanted, and some where it was not. Another large portion has been 

 disposed of in the form of solid excrement, and of this a considerable 

 part has been returned to the land ; and, in cities especially, another 

 part has found its way to the ocean, where, after having created a nui- 

 sance in the docks, it may serve for the food of marine plants, — and 

 these may nourish fishes, which, in their turn, may become food for man. 

 Of the potash, which in the form of firewood has been taken from the 

 ground, a great part has been used in the manufacture of soap, and 

 most of this has found its way either into the sesspool, to be from time 

 to time returned to the land, or into the all-receiving ocean. 



There is no doubt that with the increase of population and the neces- 

 sity of producing the utmost possible quantity of food and clothing from 

 the land, and with the increase of wealth which is continually demand- 



