98 



isolated in the hands of the chemist, inasmuch as they 

 have had conferred upon them in their passage through 

 vegetable and animal structures, a kind of vitalized ca- 

 pability, the nature of which is imperfectly understood 

 by chemists. 



But the deceptive nature of bulk in fertilizing agents, 

 is not confined to barn yard manure. Leaves, peat, 

 muck, chaff, etc., need to be carefully examined in order 

 to understand their actual value to the farmer. I have 

 been led during the present autumn to make somewhat 

 extended analysis of these substances with the view of 

 testing the correctness of some published statements re- 

 garding them, and also, to learn of how much positive 

 service they may be to the farmer. A bushel of well 

 pressed dr}^ leaves, as they fall from the trees in autumn, 

 weigh about four pounds ; by further drying, they part 

 w^ith a little more than thirty per cent of water held in 

 the cells of the leaf structure. A cord of absolutely 

 dry leaves will weigh about 325 lbs., reckoning one hun- 

 dred bushels to the cord. In weight, then, a cord repre- 

 sents about one twelfth of a cord of wet barn yard ma- 

 nure, and if they contained the same amount of fertiliz- 

 ing material in the same condition, would bo equal in 

 value to that amount of manure. But this is fir from 

 being the fact. The dried leaves I have found to stand 

 relatively to the leached organic matter of manure, as 

 10 to 30, in ash value, and when the soluble salts of ma- 

 nure are taken into account, the comparative value is as 

 10 to 60, weight for weight. A cord of dry forest leaves, 

 made up of the usual deciduous varieties, maple, beach, 

 oak, etc., has an actual mamirial value of not over fifiij 

 cents, reckoning good stable manure at eight dollai's the 

 cord. Will it pay to collect them ? Certainly not for 



