406 [Assembly 



ganic manures may be stated thus : Organic manures render 

 plants capable of talcing up the mineral manures. 



Mr. Van Wyck thought that this subject of minerals as manure 

 for landj'their origin and relative value, a very proper one at tliis 

 time, and he hoped the various discussions which had taken 

 place on them, in the Club, would elicit some light on the use of 

 them, and be, in the main, beneficial to farmers. That important 

 mineral, phosphate of lime, or bone earth, or as Leibig, perhaps, 

 more correctly denominates it, pkosp'ioric acid, found of late to be 

 so necessary and useful to form good soil, that is, a certain pro- 

 portion of it. The origin of this, where it is to be found or had 

 in its greatest purity, the process, or different kinds of process 

 for preparing it, so as to act most efficiently on plants, have been 

 pointed out and commented upon. In these discussions it has 

 been necessary to say considerable about organic manure, such 

 as barn or farm-yard, composed of vegetable and animal matter. 

 All good scientific and practical farmers say these, the organic 

 and inorganic, must be used together ; they act with more effi- 

 ciency on laud and its products ; they must be mixed up in due 

 proportions, much more of the former than the latter, for the 

 greatest yield. Prof. Antisell has given us his views on the sub- 

 ject, and he agrees fully as I understood him, on the necessity of 

 the presence of the two kinds uf manures on land, and also the 

 great importance of barn-yard manure in farming. I do not 

 af^ree exactly on the unimportance of cow-dung alone as a ma- 

 nure of the barn-yard; when well preserved and mixed with the 

 usual litter of the yard, and the cows well kept on good feed, it 

 is nearly or quite as powerful as any other organic manure. It 

 has been tried, 20 loads of cow dung of the kind stated, and 400 

 cwt. of guano to the acre, on different pieces; the former pro- 

 duced the greatest crop. The guano had the advantage at the 

 first start, but it spent its strength on the stems and leaves, the 

 fruit did not mature so well. The dung began to take hold a 

 little later and held out to the last; it possesses a more enduring 

 fertility, as most farm-yard manure does. The secretary has read 

 us several extracts and translations, selected with his usual taste 

 and judgment. I must notice one or two of them. The one, 

 relatin'T to Theophrastus, an eminent natuialist, wlio lived and 



