SPECIAL MANURES. 61 



These cases are very interesting, and are given more in 

 llustration of the principle on which special manures are 

 applied, than as examples to be followed in ordinary prac- 

 tice. For, however successful the applications may have 

 been in those instances, they have entirely failed in some 

 others. The subject is one of great importance, but is yet 

 in its infancy, and many years of careful experiment must 

 elapse, in connexion with close and laborious analysis, be- 

 fore it can be understandingly applied in general culture. 

 A number of mixtures have been recommended for general 

 use, founded on the analysis of each kind of tree, and va- 

 riously composed of lime, potash, peat, bone-dust, different 

 kinds of salts, and other ingredients, in various measured 

 proportions, — and where the soil happens to be destitute of 

 those ingredients, they may prove of much value. But to 

 apply them indiscriminately in all localities and to all kinds 

 of soils, as some have suggested, would be preposterous in 

 a high degree. Suppose, for example, a soil already con- 

 tains an unusual quantity of vegetable mold. To add to it 

 a mixture, of which peat forms a large component part, 

 would be like watering plants during an equinoctial rain- 

 storm ; or to apply large doses of lime to a soil already rich 

 in calcareous matter would be equally useless. Hence the 

 recommendation of specific compounds for universal use, 

 must be regarded as empiricism. 



If, however, certain kinds of trees are found by chemical 

 examination to consume more of those ingredients than 

 vegetables do generally, this fact would point out the ex- 

 perimental use of such ingredients, as giving more promise 

 of success, than trials made wholly in the dark. It is chiefly 

 with this view that the subject is commended to the atten- 

 tion of cultivators, and the following applications, founded 

 partly on analysis and partly on successful experiment, 

 recommended for trial: — 



The Apple. Lime, which enters largely into the compo- 

 sition of the apple tree, may be spread broadcast over an 

 orchard, at the rate of one hundred and fifty to three hun- 

 dred bushels per acre, or at the rate of a peck to a half- 

 bushel for each half-grown tree, and for smaller ones in like 

 proportion. Or, a similar quantity of ashes, which contains 

 much lime, may be used. Both may be harrowed or lightly 



