ON MANURES. 



II23 



very fertilising and valuable character. The excrements of farm 

 animals ma}^ be placed in the following order of manurial value : 

 Horse-dung and sheep-dung are about equal ; then dung from 

 oxen and cow-dung ; and, last, pig-dung. The dung of horses 

 and sheep yield hotter and more rapidly fermenting material 

 than does the dung of oxen, cows, or pigs. 



Farmyard or stable manure is said to be a perfect fertiliser, 

 because it contains all the elements necessary for supporting a 

 healthy and vigorous growth of plants. It is a universal 

 manure, because it universally produces these effects upon a 

 great variety of soils, and upon most descriptions of garden 

 products. 



Another reason why it is so valuable is that it produces 

 mechanical effects in the soil to which it is applied, from its 

 mass of organic matter, which no artificial manure can accom- 

 plish. The important mechanical effects, especially of long dung 

 on clay soils, are not to be underrated. Then, again, the vast 

 amount of heat developed during the decomposition of dung is 

 of immense value to the gardener for forcing purposes, and this 

 cannot be attained by other chemical agents. 



Further, farmyard and stable manures furnish available humus 

 and a mulch if they are spread upon the surface of the soil ; 

 they also tend to increase the water-holding power of the soil, 

 and improves its texture and physical condition. It may here 

 be stated that, so far as the humus matter of dung is beneficial 

 to vegetation, it is only by its oxidation and nitrification, and a 

 consequent supply of carbonic acid within the soil — a source of 

 immense importance in the early stages of the life of a plant, 

 and before it has developed and exposed a sufficient amount of 

 green-leaf surface to the atmosphere to render it independent of 

 soil supplies of carbonic acid. 



In many cases it is believed that these benefits are a full 

 equivalent for the less soluble characters of the fertilising 

 constituents of farmyard or stable manure, as compared with 

 commercial fertilisers. When the soil has a reasonable -amount 

 of available plant-food within it, the foregoing statement may be 

 correct ; but as the ultimate welfare of garden plants depends 

 so much on a healthy and vigorous start, with an abundant 

 root development, it becomes a question whether the more 

 quickly-acting commercial manures may not be more valuable 

 than the slowly-acting animal manures, whenever the soil is 

 deficient in readily available plant-food. Then, again, farmyard 

 manure, with its slow, nitrifying properties, may furnish sufficient 

 nitrogenous food for all late crops in the garden, or those having 

 a long period of growth ; but for early crops or very rapidly- 

 growing plants, some easily soluble nitrogenous manure, such as 

 guano, nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, &c., will be found 

 of great advantage. A ton of farmyard or stable manure, when 



4 c 2 



