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we employ, that it is a bad practice to form heaps of 

 composts for any kind of plant culture, but particu- 

 larly for the pine apple. Composts thus heaped 

 together are apt to degenerate from the real healthy 

 condition they were in when collected, and to become 

 altogether different in quality and influence upon the 

 plants. By the admixture they often become adhesive 

 and compact, soured by fermentation, and the nursery 

 of insects and fungi of various kinds. It is injurious, 

 therefore, rather than beneficial to hoard up soils for 

 a length of time, or mix composts long previously to 

 their being made use of : for the chief consequences 

 are to lose time and alter their most valuable proper- 

 ties. Liquid manure, when applied by the old school 

 of cultivators, was generally a composition of several 

 articles, recommended to be used only after it had 

 received so many stirrings, and had been allowed to 

 stand so many weeks or months, which just amounts 

 to absurdity, and loss of time and of fertilizing power ; 

 besides, it never was recommended to be applied in a 

 clarified state, as nature applied it, but as a thick 

 mixture admirably adapted to closing the pores of 

 the earth, under the old finely-broken soil system 

 of potting pines, besides causing a very unsightly ap- 

 pearance on the surface of the soil. 



The best liquid manure for pine plants in all stages 

 of growth is made by adding one gallon of soot, one 

 bushel of cow's, deer's, or sheep's dung, with a quar- 



