27 



therefore, when intended for manure, be used too soon after their 

 death. Green crops intended for enriching the soil, should be 

 ploughed in when the flower is beginning to appear, that being 

 the period when they contain the greatest quantity of easily 

 soluble matter, and when their leaves are most active in forming 

 nutritive matter. Green crops, pond weeds, the parings of 

 hedges or ditches, or any kind of fresh vegetable matter, requires 

 no preparation to fit them for manure. The decomposition 

 proceeds slowly beneath the soil ; the soluble matters are 

 gradually dissolved, and the slight fermentation that goes on, 

 checked by the want of free communication of air, tends to 

 render the woody fibre soluble, without occasioning the rapid 

 dissipation of elastic matter. 



When pastures are broken up and made arable, not only has 

 the soil been enriched by the death and slow decay of the plants 

 which have left soluble matters in the soil, but the leaves and 

 roots of the grasses living at the time, and occupying so large 

 a part of the surface, afford saccharine, mucilaginous, and extrac- 

 tive matters, which become immediately the food of the crop, and 

 the gradual decomposition affords a supply for successive years. 



Sir Humphrey Davy instituted a number of experiments in sup- 

 port of the theory he advanced, that straw should be used in 

 an unfermented state ; and there can be little doubt but that 

 great loss is sustained by the farmer under the practice that still 

 prevails to a great extent, of fermenting and re-fermenting the 

 dung-heap by frequent turnings, as much of the gaseous matter 

 is dissipated and lost by every operation. 



Dry straw of wheat, oats, barley, beans, and peas, and spoiled 

 hay, or any other similar kind of dry vegetable matter, is in all 

 cases useful manure. In general, such substances are made to 

 ferment before they are employed, though it may be doubted 

 whether the practice should be indiscriminately adopted. 



There can be no doubt but that the straw of different crops 

 immediately ploughed into the ground, affords nourishment to 

 plants, but there is an objection to this method of using straw, 

 from the difficulty of burying long straw, and from its rendering 

 the husbandry foul. 



