130 STALL-MANURE AND STRAW. 



the improvement of the physical constitution of the 

 soil. 



On the other hand, fresh manure is inferior to rot- 

 ten in the rapidity of its action, for the simple reason 

 that it requires time to putrefy and to decay, and 

 that its operation therefore does not commence 

 until these processes of decomposition are in full 

 career, whereas rotten manure has already passed 

 through these preparatory stages, and consequently 

 contains a part of its constituents in that condi- 

 tion which is needed for the nourishment of plants. 

 Fresh stall-manure, on this account, is better suit- 

 ed to plants of lengthened vegetation than to those 

 which require only a few months for their develop- 

 ment, — to winter than to summer crops. If in the 

 latter case dry weather occurs after ploughing in the 

 manure, its effect may endure through the whole of 

 the first year, particularly when the constituents of 

 the manure do not become, through decay, soluble 

 and digestible by plants until the time in which they 

 can no longer absorb and assimilate them. In grain 

 this period arrives when the plants have finished 

 shooting into ear. A manure which ripens slowly 

 will indeed work slowly, but in return for this will 

 be more enduring in its effects ; fresh manure comes 

 on more slowly than rotten, because it requires a 

 longer time for its decomposition in the soil ; it is, 

 therefore, quite natural that it should possess, as ex- 

 perience has shown it does, a greater persistence in 

 its action than the latter. The older manure is, the 



