CHAP. T. VEGETABLE MANURES. 15 



portionate) quantity of vegetable matter can generally be 

 employed in its recent and organized state with more advantage 

 than when it has been decomposed, and no inconsiderable part 

 of its component parts has been dissipated and lost during the 

 progress of putrefaction and fermentation." When, therefore, 

 at the end of the Cold season, the vegetable crops are over, if, 

 instead of removing all leaves of Cabbages, Turnips, Carrots, 

 and such like tender garbage, or, as more commonly happens, 

 of allowing them to lie on the surface to be dried up in the sun, 

 the malee were to dig them into the soil, to remain there and 

 fertilize it, till the time of cropping came round again, consider- 

 able benefit, it may fairly be concluded, would result. But on 

 this point I cannot speak from my own experience. 



LEAF-MOULD. In most gardens of any size that have been 

 long established there will always be a great quantity of vege- 

 table refuse, particularly at the time when Mangos and other 

 fruit-trees shed their leaves. All this should be collected and 

 thrown into a deep pit, dug for the purpose in some out-of-the- 

 way place. If two or three times during the Hot season water 

 be supplied to the pit, so as to give its contents a thorough 

 soaking, the decay of the vegetable matter will be all the more 

 speedy. In about a year and a half from the time the pit is 

 filled, all that has been thrown into it will have become decom- 

 posed, so as to supply invaluable material for gardening purposes, 

 especially for potting. It need hardly be remarked, that it will 

 be found to contain quantities of worms and other vermin, which 

 of course, as far as possible, should be carefully removed before 

 it is used for potting. 



On this subject the following remarks by the E 1 itor of the 

 ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' will be found of value : " There are 

 only two ways in which leaves, bits of stalk, or rotten wood, twigs 

 and similar refuse can be safely used : 



" 1 . One way is to leave them in a heap till they are 

 thoroughly rotted down, then to sift them through a fine sieve, re- 

 jecting imdecayed fragments, and again rotting down the sittings. 



" 2. The other is to char them. We do not mean to burn 

 them, but to reduce them by heat and exclusion of air to the 

 state of charcoal dust : a process by no means so easy as may 

 be supposed, but to be carried out by any experienced gardener, 

 after a few failures, which are sure to occur at first. And this 



