ON MANURES. 9 



is not proposed to enter into any philosophical discussion re- 

 garding- their powers, the consideration of which will be con- 

 fined to a practical view of their nature and operation. The 

 farmer who has a large portion of them at command will find 

 in their alternate and judicious employment the certain means 

 of increasing the usual products of the soil ; and his success, 

 as a husbandman, will doubtless be in proportion to his intelli- 

 gence, and to the attention bestowed upon its cultivation. 

 The importance to be attached to an acquaintance with the 

 principles of vegetation, and the application of manures, can- 

 not therefore but be sensibly felt by every man who sets a due 

 value either upon his character for ability in his profession, or 

 upon his pecuniary interest ; and, with the intention of facili- 

 tating its study, we add a brief explanation of the common 

 terms employed in this branch of chemistry. Our object, 

 however, being merely to be useful to persons who are 

 strangers to that science, and being aware of the prejudice 

 already existing against it in the minds of those who are un- 

 informed of its value, we have abstained from any thing 

 beyond a slight sketch, or from employing any other than 

 those phrases which may be rendered easily intelligible to 

 persons of the plainest education and understanding. 



CHAPTER II. 



ON PUTRESCENT MANURES. FARM-YARD DUNG. 



Putrescent manures, as we have already seen, consist of 

 all animal and vegetable substances which can be reduced 

 through decomposition, fermentation, and putrefaction, into 

 such a state as will render them fit to assist the melioration 

 of the land, and to forward the purposes of vegetation. When 

 combined, they form a saponaceous, solid mass of great nutri- 

 tive power, well known to farmers under the common term 

 of ' muck ;' which, although a seemingly uncouth expression, 

 conveys an idea distinct from that which is meant by dung. 

 Of these, the most generally usefiil are composed of the ex- 

 crements of animals ; for that which passes through them is 

 not composed alone of tiie residue of their food, but also of cer- 

 tam secretions of other matter in the intestinal canal ; so that 



