NUTRITIVE MANURES, €3 



gravel, till the odor was dispelled, and then carry the 

 whole upon the fields ? 



Already, in most of our great cities, the contents of the 

 privies are used for forming poudrette: this pulverulent 

 product is sought for by our agriculturists, who acknowl- 

 edge its good effects; let us hope, that, becoming more 

 enlightened, they will employ the fecal matter itself, as 

 being more rich in nutritive principles, and abounding 

 equally in salts ; they can easily govern and moderate the 

 too powerful action of this, by fermentation, or what is still 

 better, by mixing with it plaster, earth, and other absorb- 

 ents, to correct the odor. 



As ^dunghills are the riches of the fields, a good agri- 

 culturist will neglect no means of forming them ; it ought 

 to be his first and daily care, for without dung there is no 

 harvest. The scarcity of dunghills, or what is the same 

 thing, the bad state of the crops, sufficiently proves the pre- 

 judices, by which the peasant is everywhere governed, and 

 the habitual blindness with which he proceeds in his labors. 

 In our country, many of those who cultivate the land, 

 know only the kinds of straw which are suitable for fur- 

 nishing manure, and in a dunghill of litter, consider them 

 as acting the principal part, whereas they are only feeble 

 accessories. 



According to the experiments of Davy, the straw of bar- 

 ley contains only two per cent, of substance soluble in water, 

 and having a slight resemblance to mucilage ; the remainder 

 consists entirely of fibre, which can be decomposed only 

 afi;er a long time, and under circumstances calculated to 

 facilitate the operation. 



I do not believe that there is in the whole vegetable 

 kingdom, an aliment affording so little nutriment, either for 

 plants or animals, as the dry straw of grain ; serving only 

 to fill the stomachs of the latter, and furnishing to the 

 former but about one hundredth part of its weight of solu- 

 ble manure. 



Weeds, leaves of trees, and all the succulent plants 

 which grow so abundantly in ditches and waste lands, 

 under hedges, and by the road side, if cut or pulled when 

 in flower, and slightly fermented, furnish from twenty to 

 twenty-five times more manure than straw does. These 

 plants, carefully collected, furnish to the agriculturist an 

 immense resource for enriching his lands. Besides the 

 advantage arising from the manure furnished by these 



