FERTILIZERS AND MANURES. 



63 



obtained as much decomposed as possible. Tan may be 

 applied directly to Irish potatoes when ready to cover in 

 the furrow. After they are dropped and the manure 

 applied, a coat of old tan, composted with ashes or the 

 lime and salt mixture, may be given, and the planting 

 finished by covering this with earth. It improves the 

 yield materially and the quality also, as all carbonaceous 

 matters do. Where swamp muck or leaf-mould can be 

 obtained, it is hardly worth while to use tan as an 

 absorbent of animal manures. 



It is not of sufficient value to be worth hauling far. In 

 trenching, it may, with other coarse matters, be mixed 

 with the bottom soil to lighten its texture and act as a 

 reservoir of moisture. For corn it may, after composting 

 with ashes, be mixed with the surface soil, when, if not in 

 excess, it will be of some service to the crop. 



It is very difficult to reduce, but if kept moist, the lime 

 and salt mixture will do it. It may be strewed in the 

 stock-yard six or eight inches thick, and sprinkled pretty 

 thickly with the mixture. The treading of the stock will 

 mix it. Let the whole be turned over in a moist state 

 once or twice, and in the course of the winter it will be- 

 come a valuable application to the plants that do well 

 with fresh manure. There are abundant elements of fer- 

 tility in tan, but it is more difficult to render them avail- 

 able than with any other vegetable substance; and it is, 

 upon the whole, quite a dangerous article to experiment 

 with. Reduced thoroughly by composting it with stable 

 manure, using in this case no lime, and then mixed with 

 decayed leaves and plenty of sharp sand, it makes a toler- 

 able compost for growing those plants which require 

 peat, such as Azaleas and Rhododendrons. Tan, properly 

 composted, will prove of most use in light soils deficient 

 in vegetable matter, and when less decomposed, for open- 

 ing the texture of close, heavy clays. 



