246 J E. TESCHEMACHER'S REMARKS. 



He had time only to allude to the third, yet most important 

 consideration, the nature and application of the manure itself. 

 In some parts of England, where much seed wheat is raised, 

 and where seeds of vegetables and herbs, are grown to a large 

 extent, he had seen compost heaps formed as follows : — a layer 

 of four or five inches of good loam and turf, then about eight 

 to twelve inches seaweed, carted up fresh from the beach, then an 

 equal quantity of farm-yard manure, then loam again, and these 

 layers repeated, until the mass was several feet high, the last 

 layer being loam and turf This is left eight or twelve months. 

 to decompose, is turned over and applied to the land. The 

 grains raised are large, plump, beautiful and heavy. Now, 

 here the ingredients are, clayey loam to absorb, seaweed, con- 

 taining soda, and a good proportion of the phosphates, and the 

 barnyard manure, which, besides its soluble salts, contains am- 

 monia ; its solid parts are, by fermentation, converted into char- 

 coal and humus, which absorb the ammonia, and preserve it for 

 the use of the crops; the whole mass being well protected b)?^ 

 an ample covering of turf and loam. Here, then, is not only 

 nearly every ingredient the plant requires, but also, the store- 

 houses of alumina and charcoal, from which it fetches its food, 

 as wanted. He alluded to a discussion on the subject, whether 

 manure was better used in a green state, or after it had been 

 kept a year or more, and had become a black saponaceous mass. 

 The question appeared to be settled in favor of this latter state, 

 and this agreed with his own experience. If a manure heap be 

 fermented under a good cover, it is converted into a black, car- 

 bonaceous mass, containing nearly all the ammonia, condensed 

 in its pores, and is a most powerful manure. 



SECOND EVENING. 



He wished now, in the most concise manner possible, to give 

 his ideas on the separate value to vegetation, of some of the in- 

 gredients of manures — and here, as before, he would omit all de- 

 tail of the various experiments on which he had formed his 

 judgment, merely offering these remarks, as his own opinions on 

 this subject, which, however, he could not help considering of 

 much importance. 



