20 TilE CULINARY GARDE*?. 



generally credited and acknowledged, it would ap- 

 pear to be the indispensable duty of every gardener 

 and cultivator of the earth, to be careful in the col- 

 lection of it, and also to distribute it with skilful fru- 

 gality. For this purpose, a well, or cistern, should 

 be contrived so as to collect the dunghil drainings ; 

 and in the application of manure of any kind, the 

 greatest care should be taken to divide it equally, 

 according to the quantity to be applied. 



All animal substances, when properly applied, are 

 good manures ; and as animals derive their suste- 

 nance, either immediately or ultimately, from ve- 

 getables, these, when properly decomposed, become 

 great promoters of vegetation. Hence dungs, in 

 general, are superior to other manures ; and are the 

 more valuable in their kinds, according to the pro- 

 portion of the oils they contain, which are most 

 easily reducible, by the nitrous acid of the air, into 

 that species of mucilage, allowed to be the essential 

 pabulum or nutriment of plants. Our duty, there- 

 fore, is to collect these with care, and apply them 

 with attention. 



The dunghil may also be considerably increased, 

 by throwing the haulm and leaves of all kinds of 

 vegetables into a common heap, letting them remain 

 till w r ell rotted, and afterwards mixing them with 

 lime, marl, ashes, or soot ; or mixing them in the 

 process of collection. By watering the whole, fre- 



ty in the soil ; exciting its fermentation, communicating nu- 

 tritive matter, and affording nourishment to the roots of plants ; 

 thereby promoting vegetation, and the perfection of vegetables. 



