THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



119 



ground with a crop, unless the crop be returned 

 to the land, is a mode of improvement I do not 

 understand. 



This writer goes on to show that manure dis- 

 appears much sooner in sand than in clay ; and 

 this altogether by evaporation, which he attri- 

 butes to its superior heat; overlooking the fact, 

 that the sand acts the part of a filter, suffering 

 every thing soluble to pass through ; and it is 

 only in a state of solution that an}' substance 

 can be appropriated as food by the roots of plants. 

 As the writer sets out with the assertion, that 

 manure does not sink, so he comes to the con- 

 clusion that it should be buried deep, and the 

 lowest depths should be given to it in sand ; a 

 position from which I can testify from my own 

 experience, it will never rise, but its course will 

 be still — downward. It is my opinion, and I 

 am confirmed in it by the experence of many of 

 our best practical farmers, that manure, instead j 

 of being buried deep, should be kept near the 1 

 surface, certainly, in no other way, are its bene- 

 ficial effects rendered more apparent than when 

 it is applied as a top dressing to wheat, to oats, I 

 to grass, to tobacco plants, even to the growing j 

 crops of corn and tobacco. I have tried it on 

 all these crops, and uniformly with great benefit. 

 I have top dressed equal lots of wheat, in each 

 month, from October until April, at the rate of 

 ten cart loads (ox cart) to the acre, and on each 

 lot the produce was more than double that of 

 the adjoining land without manure ; and where ! 

 it was applied at the time of sowing, it was 

 more than quadrupled. This method of apply- ' 

 ing manure is very highly esteemed by our most ' 

 judicious farmers. Mr. Richard Samson, of 

 Goochland, has been practicing on this system . 

 for many years. 



How are these crops fed by the manure?, 

 How is the after crop of grass nourished 1 How | 

 is the soil to a high degree ameliorated 1 and 

 this too by a light dressing of manure ; if it all 

 evaporates ; if manure does not sink. 



I alluded above to the effect of cow penning 

 in fertilizing land, I have a word or two more 

 to say on that subject. If fifty head of grown 

 cattle be penned every night during one of our 

 hottest summer months, (even without litter,) 

 they will manure one acre, if the land is not 

 very poor, and if it be ploughed the next fall, 

 and at the proper time be well prepared and 

 tilled, it will produce a good crop of tobacco, 

 corn, or any other crop, the season suiting. — 

 How is the crop of tobacco fed 1 How is the ' 

 soil made rich ? if the manure all evaporates ! 

 if manure does not sink ! Here all the manure 

 is applied to the surface of the ground, not bu- 

 ried deep, it is exposed to the intense heat of our 

 summer sun, it may be from June until Novem- 

 ber, and yet no man will pretend to deny the 



decided benefit derived 

 sheep upon land. 



from penning cattle or 



Again, the streams that pass through large 

 cities, saturated as they are with the offal of 

 the town, are eagerly sought by the farmers be- 

 low, and turned to purposes of irrigation. Their 

 effect on vegetation is very striking, owing to 

 the large amount of fertilizing matter carried 

 down in their current, and deposited on the fields 

 they are made to spread over. But how is this 

 matter to benefit the meadows ? How are the 

 crops to get at this food spread upon the surface % 

 if all the manure evaporates ! If manure does 

 not sink 1 



In France, Germany, and some parts of Great 

 Britain, an extensive use is made of liquid ma- 

 nures, much the most valuable portion of the 

 manure, by-the-by, and much the most volatile, 

 1 yet they are invariably used on the surface as 

 a top dressing. Now I ask, how do the plants 

 | appropriate these highly nutritious compounds 

 to their use, if they all evaporate ; if manure 

 does not sink ? 



The Chinese, who carefully collect every sub- 

 stance that can be made to minister to the 

 growth of plants, apply them not deep, but to 

 the growing plant, and the fertility of their soil, 

 and the millions fed by its products, do not prove 

 that manure all evaporats ! that it does not sink ! 



The nitre beds of France, which are nothing 

 more than compost heaps, being earth, vegeta- 

 ble and animal matter mixed and thrown into 

 long ridges, which are occasionally turned, that 

 the materials may be the better exposed to the 

 air, after standing a twelvemonth, ammonia and 

 nitric acid are both produced in much larger 

 quantities than the materials themselves could 

 furnish, and clearly by the atmosphere itself. — 

 On examination, the heaps are found to contain 

 the most valuable manures. Now how can this 

 be, if manures all evaporate ? 



Although no chemist, but a plain farmer, I 

 have learned enough to appreciate its value as 

 applied to agriculture. It teaches me that agents 

 engaged in preparing and presenting the raw 

 manure, in a fit shape, as food for plants, are 

 numerous, and always at work. It teaches me 

 that it is the property of all saline and mineral 

 substances to hasten the decay of vegetable and 

 animal matter. The potash, lime, soda, magne- 

 sia, &c. &c , which are present in the soil and 

 in the manure, by holding themselves in readi- 

 ness to unite with the various acids as they are 

 formed, actually provoke their formation, and 

 this the more speedily and perfectly, the more 

 exposed, as in the nitre beds, the different agents 

 are to the sun's light, to the warm air and to 

 moisture. The result is, that the manure gra- 

 dually disappears, the acids, as we have seen, 

 uniting with the alkaline matter to form salts, 

 some of them unite with and fix the ammonia; 

 (Liebig says, that if plaster be added it will be 

 all deprived of its volatility,) and these salts, by 

 their specific gravity, and by their solubility, 



