358 VEGETABLE MANURE BEST FRESH. 



flesh of other animals, when they obtain it most nearly in- 

 the state in which it exists as part of a living body ; and the 

 experiments, I shall proceed to state, afford evidence of 

 considerable weight, that many vegetable substances are best 

 calculated to reassume an organic living state, when they 

 are least changed and decomposed by putrefaction. 



Proof of this in I had been engaged in the year 1810, in some experi- 



plum roents, from which I hoped to obtain new varieties of the 



plum ; but one only of the blossoms, upon which I had 

 operated, escaped the excessive severity of the frost in the 

 spring. The seed, which this afforded, having been pre-^ 

 served in mould during the winter, was, in March, placed 

 in a small garden. pot, which was nearly filled with the liv- 

 ing leaves and roots of grasses, mixed with a small quantity 

 of earth ; and this was sufficiently covered with a layer of 

 mould, which contained the roots only of grasses, to pre- 

 vent, in a great measure, the growth of the plants which 

 were buried. The pot, which contained about one six- 

 teenth of a square foot of mould and living vegetable matter, 

 was placed under glass, but without artificial heat, and the 

 plant appeared above the soil in the end of April. It was 

 three times, during the summer, removed into a larger pot, 

 and each time supplied with the same matter to feed upon; 

 and in the end of October its roots occupied about the space 

 of one third of a square foot, its height above the surface of 

 the mould being then nine feet seven inches. 



and in potatoes. In the beginning of June a small piece of ground was 

 planted with potatoes of an early variety, and in some rows 

 green fern, and in others nettles, were employed instead of 

 other manure ; and> subsequently, as the early potatoes were 

 taken up for use, their tops were buried in rows in the same 

 manner, and potatoes of the preceding year were placed upon 

 them, and covered in the usual way. The days being then 

 long, the ground warm, and the decomposing green leaves 

 and stems affording abundant moisture, the plants acquired 

 their full growth in an unusually short time, >nd afforded an. 

 abundant produce; and the remaining part of the summer 

 proved more than sufficient to mature potatoes of any early 



Hint to the variety. The market gardener may, probably, employ the 



tops 



