MAS HUES. 33 



CHAPTER VI. 

 MANURES. 



The quantity, quality, and proper application of ma- 

 nures is of the utmost importance in all gardening opera- 

 tions, and few have any conception of the immense quan- 

 tity necessary to produce the heavy crops seen in our 

 market gardens. Of stable or barn-yard manure, from 

 fifty to one hundred tons per acre is used, and prepared, 

 for at least six months previously, by thoroughly turning 

 and breaking up to prevent its heating unduly. The 

 usual method is to have the manure yard formed in a 

 low part of the garden, but if there is no natural depres- 

 sion, one may be made by digging out an area fifty by 

 one hundred feet and from eighteen to twenty-four inches 

 deep, and enclosing it by a fence about six feet in height. 

 The wagons are driven alongside, and the green manure 

 thrown into the enclosure, care being taken to have it" 

 spread regularly ; hogs are usually kept upon the manure 

 in numbers sufficient to break it up, they being fed in 

 part by the refuse vegetables and weeds of the garden. 



The manure of horses is most valued, as we consider it, 

 weight for weight, worth about one-fourth more than 

 that of cows or hogs ; on stiff soils it is of much more 

 benefit as a pulverizer. There are many articles the 

 refuse of manufactures that are still wasted, that have 

 great value as manures. Among others, and of first im- 

 portance, is the refuse hops from the breweries. It is 

 twenty years ago since they first began to be used in our 

 gardens about New York ; at first they were to be had 

 at almost every brewery without cost, but the demand 

 has so increased that the price to-day ranges even higher 

 than that of the best stable manure. Aside from its high 

 fertilizing properties, it is excellent for breaking up and 

 pulverizing the soil, and as a top-dressing or mulching 1 , 



