478 [Assembly 



their stems and leaves; and if they are again plowed in, they 

 restore the matters which had sunk to a great depth, and cause 

 the ground to become far more fertile than it was before. The 

 manuring is performed with much less lo?s, than if the herbage 

 had been carried to the barn yard and fermented, or fed to stock; 

 the latter process deprives it of nearly all its valuable properties, 

 which go to form the bone, muscle, and, in fact, the whole animal 

 economy, and the refuse i^ecomes a cold, inert, valueless com- 

 pound. There is no way in which the crop grown upon a piece 

 of land, can be made to convey more enriching matter, than by 

 plowing in the green leaves and stems, owing to the quantity of 

 water they contain, it is almost equal to liquid manuring, and 

 consequently the benefit is immediate. 



2>l. It will be found by those who try the experiment, that 

 their succeeding crops will always stand erect, and will produce 

 much more grain than straw, which is not the case when fermen- 

 ted farm yard manure is used. 



3d. If the soil is devoid of vegetable matter, green manuring 

 will benefit it particularly, adding not only the substance drawn 

 from the earth, but those extracted from the atmosphere, making 

 it rich in organic matter, and the farther this process is carried, the 

 richer the soil becomes, except in saline matters ; I would select 

 for this purpose clovers, lucerne, buckwheat, or any other rapid 

 growing plant, producing a considerable quantity of vegetable 

 matter ; those being fittest that are best adapted to the climate. 

 The plant that would grow very rapidly with us, might fail alto- 

 gether in Canada; and the plant that would grow well upon, and 

 enrich a clay or loam, might fail to grow at all upon a sand; the 

 selection made, must suit the soil and location. By green manu- 

 ring, worthless running sands may be induced to yield fine crops 

 of cereal grains, and the more barren they are, the more they are 

 improved ; such soils require a green crop, to be turned under 

 every other year, and alternated with grain. By this process the 

 land will gradually become rich. In Germany ,'spurry is used for 

 the purpose of green manuring, and owing to its luxuriant growth, 

 it is supposed to improve the ground as much, when eaten off by 

 animals, as when plowed in. In Italy, the white lupin is consi- 



