STALL-MANURE AND STRAW. 127 



vegetable organs ; pond-mud is equally rich therein ; 

 in the same manner, we very frequently find in the 

 subsoil considerable quantities of putrefied or moul- 

 dering vegetable tissue, for instance, what is called 

 moor-earth, etc. All these substances must notori- 

 ously lie a longer or shorter time in the air, before 

 they are serviceable to plants. The transformation 

 they thereby undergo follows from what precedes; 

 they pass over from a putrefied or rotten state into 

 that of decay. 



In arable land the decay of manure can only take 

 place in its upper surface, so far as this is loose and 

 accessible to air. If, therefore, a rapid operation is 

 desirable, it must only be superficially ploughed in, 

 especially in heavy soil. The deeper it is introduced 

 into the ground, and consequently excluded from the 

 air, the more tardy and slow must be its decay, and 

 therefore its operation. 



2. Rational Treatment of Stall-Manure. 



Two courses must be adopted by the farmer who 

 wishes to lose none of the fertilizing elements of 

 stall-manure ; he must either apply it fresh to his land 

 and plough it into the ground before it has passed into 

 putrefaction and evolved volatile substances^ or he 

 must take care that, during its putrefaction in the sta- 

 ble or in the yard, these volatile substances are finnly 

 held and cannot escape. 



1. That the farmer, by carting this manure upon 

 his fields in afresh, unfermented, strawy state, just as 



