MANURES. THEIR SOURCES AND PREPARATION. 49 



more importance for potting plants in the green-house. 

 For the kitchen and fruit garden it is best composted like 

 swamp muck with fresh animal manure. It is indispensa- 

 ble in garden culture. 



Tan-bark is another material abounding in carbon, 

 which may, to some extent, be used as an absorbent of 

 animal manure. It may be beneficially applied directly to 

 strawberries, to which it answers the double purpose of 

 mulching and manure. But the crowns of the plants 

 must not be covered ; and for all purposes it should be 

 obtained as much decomposed as possible. Tan may be 

 applied directly to Irish potatoes when ready to cover in 

 the furrow. After they are dropped and the manure ap- 

 plied, a coat of. old tan, composted with ashes or the lime 

 and salt mixture, may be given, and finish jjlanting by 

 covering this with earth. It improves the yield mate- 

 rially and the quality also, as all carbonaceous matters do. 

 Where swamp muck or leaf-mould can be obtained, it is 

 hardly worth while to use tan as an absorbent of animal 

 manures. 



It is not of sufficient value to be worth hauling far. In 

 trenching, it may, with other coarse matters, be mixed 

 with the bottom soil to lighten its texture and act as a res- 

 ervoir of moisture. For corn it may, after composting 

 with ashes, be mixed with the surface soil, when, if not in 

 excess, it will be of some service to the crop. 



It is very difficult to reduce, but if kept moist, the lime 

 and salt mixture will do it. It may be strewed in the 

 stock-yard six or eight inches thick, and sprinkled pretty 

 thickly with the mixture. The treading of the stock will 

 mix it. Let the whole be turned over in a moist state 

 once or twice, and in the course of the winter it will be- 

 come a valuable application to the plants that do well with 

 fresh manure. There are abundant elements of fertility in 

 tan, but it is more difficult to render them available than 

 with any other vegetable substance ; and it is, upon the 

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