MANURES 



The idyll of manures has been written by the Dean of 

 Rochester, who has placed on eternal record his devotion 

 to Sterculus, the son of Faunus, whom he imaged as 

 riding proudly, pitch-fork (" agricultural trident ") in 

 hand, in his family chariot, the currus Stercorosus (^Anglice, 

 muck-cart). As I can confess to no such love, I will 

 merely state the few facts which all plant-growers must 

 bear in memory. 



The great and safe manure for hardy flower culture 

 is that of the stable or farm-yard, which is so valuable, 

 not only for the actual food elements which itself con- 

 tains, but also for the mass of straw and other organic 

 material which by its fermentation sets up chemical 

 activity in the soil, and so liberates a small continuous 

 supply of the plant-foods therein contained. This latter 

 property is what gives much of its manurial value to 

 the mixed "rubbish" of the ash-pit — containing as it 

 generally does such waste organic matter as cabbage 

 leaves, potato-peelings, and " bits " of all kinds. Buried 

 weeds, leaves and "garden refuse" act in a precisely 

 similar way. These organic manures are, moreover, of 

 the greatest service in keeping the soil open, porous and 

 friable, in retaining water and so retaining also mineral 

 plant-foods dissolved therein, and in adding to the 

 warmth of the soil both by engendering heat in the 

 process of fermentation and by mechanically rendering 

 the soil a worse conductor. 



In the preliminary preparation of borders or beds, 

 provided the soil be well dug to a depth of two or 



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