668 GREEN MANtTKES. 



same burnt mixture haa been applied withequal suooeas in my fruit- 

 garden. I had observed a great decrease in my crop of Apricots for 

 several years past, and upon a careful investigation as to the cause, my 

 gardener and I agreed that it must be owing to the tenacity of the 

 border ; we therefore had the old soil removed, and a quantity of this 

 burnt mixture with a little fresh loam substituted for it. My gardener 

 planted the border so renewed with runners of Eeen's Seedlingg in 

 rows ; they became strong plants by June, when they flowered and 

 produced an abundant crop, and all my Aprioot-trees were covered 

 during the summer with well-ripened fruit. I am so fully persuaded 

 of the excellence of this kind of manure, that I intend to adopt it 

 generally on my farm. It will there have a double advantage ; for I 

 shall be enabled to save the farm-yard dung for composts, and I shall 

 have the gratification of seeing my hedges neatly trimmed and my 

 ditches well cleared out. Our stiff soils wiU be also rendered more 

 friable, and wiU not suffer as they now do from the retention of wet on 

 the surface." 



Green Manure is, perhaps, for many places, the best of all, 

 inasmuch as it consists of young highly nitrogenous matter, 

 ready to pass immediately into fermentation and decomposition, 

 and to restore to the earth all that it has abstracted, as soon 

 as it is buried. Moreover, if the plants used for this purpose 

 are tap -rooted, they bring up from the depth of the soil a large 

 quantity of alkaline and earthy matter, and leave it near the 

 surface, within reach of the roots of plants with less power of 

 penetration. 



It has been said that by this method the most infertile soils 

 may be rapidly rendered productive. Lupines, Borage, Eape, 

 Spurry, or in fact any crop that forms large leaves and grows 

 fast, being sown close, and dug in as soon as they are ready to 

 come into flower, rapidly enrich land poor in organic matter, or 

 exhausted by repeated cropping, and render it fit for renewed 

 cultivation. If crops suited to the climate are selected for this 

 purpose, two or three crops will succeed each other in the same 

 year, and each contribute their quota to the soU. It is also 

 said that, owing to the increased temperature of soil thus 

 treated, owing to the fermentation of the green matter buried, 

 each successive crop grows faster and adds more than that 

 which preceded it. In this way barren sands are said to have 

 been rendered fertile, and exhausted kitchen gardens are 



