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is, that they should be used in a green state, as their most valuable 

 parts are lost in the progress of decomposition. The philosophy of 

 manures is as little understood as the philosophy of digestion. Nature 

 draws a veil over many of her processes, which no prying curiosity 

 has been able to raise, and no solicitude has induced her to uncover 

 these operations. By what means the food received into the stomach 

 goes, in its wonderful subdivisions and changes, to the formation of 

 blood and bone, muscles and skin, hair and nails, is a matter about 

 which we know as much as we know how the food of plants is taken 

 up and elaborated, and goes, according to the seed which is sown, 

 to the formation of the stem and leaves, the coloring and taste, the 

 flowers and fruit. It may operate as a stimulant, waking the dor- 

 mant powers of the earth into action. It may serve as the substance, 

 out of which the plants are to be formed ; and to a degree the evi- 

 dence of this is perfect. It may so affect the earth and the atmos- 

 phere, that these great reservoirs of the elements of vegetable and 

 animal life may at once furnish their proper and required contributions. 

 But conjecture here is in a great measure idle. We may talk very 

 learnedly on the subject without knowing any thing about it, or being 

 able to communicate any valuable information. On this matter, 

 experience and intelligent observation must be our guides. In actual 

 bulk manure, which is thoroughly decomposed, loses one half. Its 

 activity, its power of producing heat, one of the ascertained principles 

 of vegetable life, is likewise lost. On these accounts, it is obviously 

 best to apply it green. The experience of intelligent farmers almost 

 universally confirms this. But unfermented manure, if applied im- 

 mediately to the roots of plants, may, by too much action, or too 

 much heat, or by supplying their food in too lavish or too concen- 

 trated a form, destroy them. There is no danger from this when 

 manures are spread and ploughed under the soil, or scattered over its 

 surface. But where their immediate action is desired in the soil, it 

 is important, before they are taken out of the yard, that they should 

 be in a partially decomposed state, or rather in an active state ; and 

 for that reason they should be turned over and thrown into heaps in 

 the cattle yards in the spring, that they may become in a degree warm 

 before they are applied. If they are to be applied directly to the roots 

 of crops, they should be either mixed with earth, or so far advanced 



