NATURAL MANURE. 23 



CHAPTER IV. 

 NATURAL MANURE. 



We often hear about "natural" manure. I do not like the 

 term, though I believe it originated with me. It is not accurate ; 

 not definite enough. 



" I do not know what you mean by natural manure," said the 

 Deacon, " unless it is the droppings of animals."" To distinguish 

 them, I suppose," said the Doctor, "from artificial manures, such 

 as superphosphate, sulphate of ammonia, and nitrate of soda." 

 " 'No ; that is not how I used the term. A few years ago, we 

 used to hear much in regard to the ' exhaustion of soils. ' I 

 thought this phrase conveyed a wrong idea. When new land 

 produces large crops, and when, after a few years, the crops get 

 less and less, we were told that the farmers were exhausting their 

 land. I said, no ; the farmers are not exhausting the soil ; they 

 are merely exhausting the accumulated plant-food in the soil. In 

 other words, they are using up the natural manure. 



" Take my own farm. Fifty years ago, it was covered with a 

 heavy growth of maple, beech, black walnut, oak, and other trees. 

 These trees had shecl annual crops of leaves for centuries. The 

 leaves rot on the ground ; the trees also, age after age. These 

 leaves and other organic matter form what I have called natural 

 manure. When the land is cleared up and plowed, this natural 

 manure decays more rapidly than when the land lies undisturbed ; 

 precisely as a manure-pile will ferment and decay more rapidly if 

 turned occasionally, and exposed to the air. The plowing and 

 cultivating renders this natural manure more readily available. 

 The leaves decompose, and furnish food for the growing crop." 



EXHAUSTION OF THE SOIL. 



" You think, then," said the Doctor, " that when a piece of land 

 is cleared of the forest, harrowed, and sown to wheat ; plowed 

 and planted to corn, and the process repeated again and again, 

 until the land no longer yields profitable crops, that it is the 

 < natural manure,' and not the soil, that is exhausted ? " 



" I think the soil, at any rate, is not exhausted, and I can easily 

 conceive of a case where even the natural manure is very far from 

 being all used up." 



" Why, then," asked the Deacon, " is the land so poor that it 

 will scarcely support a sheep to the acre ? " 



