THE MANSE GARDEN. 133 



the evaporation of sap and promote decomposition ; 

 and, for the supply of this heap, let it be a great and 

 fixed principle that every thing is manure except 

 stones, and let nothing be burnt for the sake of 

 clearing either garden or glebe. 



With great prodigality thousands of cart-loads of 

 valuable manure are annually burnt upon the fields : 

 the ashes amount to nothing the main substance is 

 dissipafed in smoke, to the enriching of the clouds 

 and the damage of a poor soil. Quickens, docks, 

 thistles, hedge and gooseberry prunings, furze, broom, 

 every thing of the wood kind not fit for fuel, if cov- 

 ered with a little earth, will rot down in one year 

 and constitute a manure of excellent quality whether 

 for garden or field. Keep clean doors, clean roads, 

 clean entrances by every gate the only luxury that 

 enriches ; for thus the unclean stepping which annoys 

 both eye and foot will in time become gold in your 

 hand. Wherever this plan of gathering from all 

 quarters is pursued, the amount will be so great as 

 to provoke the wonder whence it came or whither it 

 would have gone had it not been collected. Evapo- 

 ration on the surface of the earth is like the insen- 

 sible perspiration you see not whither the substance 

 goes, but, by considering the ingesta, you perceive 

 how much has been lost; and so, by viewing the 

 congesta in this case, you perceive how much has 

 been gained. But to make the idea of value more 

 tangible, it may be certainly affirmed that every cubic 

 yard of this omnium gatherum, when mixed with a 

 small proportion of lime, is worth five shillings ; and 

 that with no sensible outlay you may acquire, in the 

 course of two or three years, the invaluable treasure 



