42 



trenching, fruit trees will rarely suffer from deficienc)' of 

 either. They are best applied in the indirect way by 

 means of ordinary statfle manure, if only the cultivator 

 will prepare it properly. Raw dung that has not been 

 rotted down has no business to figure as manure, and in 

 light sandy soils may do serious mischief. Every man 

 who means to act fairly by his orchard, will see to it that 

 his manure-pit is covered up from rain and from sun, so 

 that the contents are neither leached out by the one nor 

 dried up by the other. The dung has to be kept at the 

 degree of heat and moisture most favourable for its rapid 

 fermentation, and be duly turned over to promote the 

 perfect decomposition required. The dung only becomes 

 manure and is suitable for the use of the orchard 

 when it has fermented down into a brown mass 

 of friable humus. Its manipulation serves two useful 

 purposes, first, the due aeration without which the 

 putrefactive bacteria cannot exist ; and second, the pre- 

 vention of too high a temperature, which would drive off 

 the ammonia and materially lower the manurial value of 

 the product. On no account should fruit-trees ever get a 

 top-dressing of fresh guano. It is popularly supposed to 

 be a sort of cure-all or. receipt for universal fertility, but 

 its improper use has done much mischief. With fruit trees 

 is is so easy to give an overdose, and then it materially 

 diminishes the production of fruit, and gives instead an 

 inordinate growth of wood and leafage. It is fair to say 

 that the only significance of guano to the orchardist arises 

 out of the general poverty of his manure heap, particularly 

 in phosphates. It does not often happen that he has the 

 means of accumulating a stock of stable dung only. Sweep- 

 ings of all sorts, prunings, brushwood, leaves, kraal drop- 

 pings, all go in to increase the mass. To this there is no 

 objection, provided it can be thoroughly fermented down ; 

 but from the nature of the materials the fermentation be- 

 comes a very slow process, and by the end of the year the 

 manure, so-called, is only about half made. To make up 

 its deficiencies and lack of ammonia and nitrates, a sprink- 

 ling of guano, previous to turning it over, may be admis- 

 sible. But the cultivator must be well aware of the risk 

 he runs, and give with a very sparing hand. 



