362 TEANSACTIONS OF THE 



to lose by that very turning a great part of its value, ought not 

 to be the question; but whether he might not have employed his 

 fresh manure to multiply itself many times, to render soluble and 

 fit food for plants, inert and vicious substances. Of the second 

 condition of loss of value in manures, not much need be said. 

 As I have before stated, the four great gaseous elements of plants, 

 oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, are combined in such 

 proportions and relations in disorganized plants, in ripe or dry 

 vegetables, and in fresh dung, and half rotted plants, as to be 

 totally unfitted for food for green and living ones. 



Now the moment that fermentation, heating, or decay com- 

 mences, these gases separate from each other, and are set free for 

 new^ combinations. As they occupy vastly greater bulk than 

 before, they burst forth and escape, unless detained by some 

 absorbing substance, that would hold them until combined again. 

 The carbon unites with the oxygen, and combustion lakes place, 

 precisely like the burning of charcoal in a flame, and the result 

 is the same, ashes. The ashes of fire from the hearth, and the 

 ashes of fire-fanged dung, are precisely similar. By this fire- 

 fanging, the hydrogen and nitrogen, which would have formed 

 ammonia, have nothing to detain them; the carbonaceous matter 

 which forms their natural storehouse, has been burned up. There 

 are but three methods of preserving manure from this species of 

 loss : 1st. Saturation with water. 2d. Drying in the sun. 3d. 

 Composting with considerable bulks of inert matter. All these 

 are objectionable, but the last presents the vast advantage, that 

 while the bulk is greatly increased, the value is not diluted; that 

 every pound of the compost is equal to a pound of the original. 



I am convinced, therefore, that the whole subject of manure 

 might be condensed into the following propositions : 



1. Manure does not waste so long as it is unfermented and 

 undissolved, and these conditions are effected by drying, or by 

 saturation, by spreading too thinly for heating, or by heating in 

 contact with absorbing substances, (opposite conditions, and yet 

 not different.) 



2. Fresh or unfermented excrement is unfit for food of plants, 

 and requires a new combination of elements, for which time and 

 heat and moisture are requisite, and to which saturation and dry- 

 ness are equally opposed. 



