66 GARDENING FOE THE SOUTH. 



manures are employed in a fresh state, they should be 

 mixed intimately with the soil, and given to such coarse 

 feeding crops as corn and the garden pea. But nearly all 

 plants do better if the manure is composted and fully 

 fermented before use. Pig manure, used alone, is con- 

 sidered pernicious to the growth of the cabbage and 

 turnip tribe, and gives an unpleasant taste to many other 

 vegetables, but composted with muck or mould, it is 

 much more beneficial as well as more durable. 



In managing animal manures, decomposition must be 

 promoted; the volatile parts must be preserved from dis- 

 sipation in the air, and the soluble portions from being 

 washed out by rains. That it may ferment, it must be 

 kept in a bod}-, that heat ma}- be generated and its natural 

 moisture retained, while beneath it a layer of some ab- 

 sorbent substance should be placed, to receive and retain 

 its soluble parts, and as fast at it is thrown from the 

 stable it should be covered with layers of muck to retain 

 the ammonia. Horse manure, especially, should not be 

 exposed at all ; it begins to heat and lose ammonia almost 

 immediately, as may be perceived by the smell. Mix it 

 with other manures and cover it with absorbents as soon 

 as possible. Keep the stable bedded with muck, and over 

 this a good bed of leaves. 



The Manure of Birds is richer than that of any other 

 animals; as the solid and liquid excrements are mixed 

 together, it is particularly rich in nitrogen and the phos- 

 phates. Three or four hundred weight of the manure of 

 pigeons, fowls, turkeys, etc., is of equal value with from 

 fourteen to eighteen loads of animal manure. 



Night Soil and chamber slops should be composted as 

 before directed with charcoal, or the black mould from 

 woods. (Jypsum may be added to the mixture; all smell 

 is thus destroyed, and an offensive nuisance is converted 

 into a valuable application to any crop. Where charcoal 



