No. 144.] 



483 



I infiniteiy pref'^r the liquid miscellaneous manure of a farm, 

 for general agricultural operations, to the simple manures ; from 

 the fact that by the rules of vegetable physiology, the roots of 

 plants not only seek their food, but when they find it, have the 

 power tQ select the most suitable to their growth ; that is one of 

 the reasons why town sewerages form such an admirable manure 

 for growing crops; it consists of the remains of everything taken 

 into the town, and is, in the greatest degree, miscellaneous. Our 

 American farmers, by mismanagement of their solid manures, 

 such as retaining them on the surface, by the evaporation of their 

 fertilizing properties, and by bad management of them in the 

 grouPid, lose more than three-quarters of their valuable enriching 

 powers, and the loss of liquid manure is entire. Whenever you 

 see the manure ot the stable and cow houses exposed to the weather 

 in heaps, washed by every rain, you may safely conclude that the 

 owner will soon be compelled to turn his attention to some other 

 mode of livelihood. 



It has been generally observed that the English, as well as the 

 American farmer, have hitherto imagined that only as good ma- 

 nure, wdiich he could load in his wagon with a four tined fork, but 

 not many years will elapse before he will think a scoop the only 

 farming utensil fit to handle manure ; which serves as one and 

 the same time as an enriclier of tlie soil, and for watering. 



The following tables show the amount of the elements of plants, 

 contained in the food yearly consumed by two hundred full grown 

 persons. 



