A PRACTICAL TREATISE 



ON MANURES. 



CHAPTER I. 



ON THE NATURE AND PKOPERTIES OF MANURE. 



Though manuring has been generally practised wherever 

 cultivation has been attended to, its principles are still but 

 vaguely understood, and the best adaptation to various soils of 

 the different articles of which it consists is far from being ac- 

 curately ascertained. Yet, although it be true that chemical 

 research into the component parts of soils and manures has 

 not reached any positive conclusion respecting their effects 

 upon the growth of vegetables, still it is certain that the 

 principles on which they are nourished depend altogether 

 upon chemistry ; and agriculture, in its modern improved 

 state, has led with considerable precision to a knowledge of 

 those laws of vegetation by which we are enabled to ameliorate 

 the land, and to increase the quantity, as well as to improve 

 the quality of its productions. The farmer, who applies a 

 peculiar species of manure, which has been found beneficial 

 to his ground, being himself ignorant of chemistry, only 

 follows the practice of his predecessors or neighbors; but 

 while he sneers at the theorist who would direct his attention 

 to the study of the first principles of his art, both he, and 

 those whom he follows, were probably originally indebted for 

 that practice to the observations of men of science. 



No one who is at all conversant with the subject of manure 

 can be ignorant that, notwithstanding the management of in- 

 telligent husbandmen, a great want of knowledge prevails 

 among the common run of farmers regarding the best modes 

 of its preparation and application. In making this remark, 

 we do not, however, mean to allude to the deficiency of 

 chemical knowledge, which, however valuable, is but little 

 within the scope of the mere farmer ; nor do we intend to 



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