THE 



Devoted to Agriculture^ Horticulture^ and the Household Arts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts.! Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of 

 — Xenophon. \ the State. — Sully. 



J. E. WILLIAMS, Editor. AUGUST & WILLIAMS, Prop'rs. 



Vol. XVIII. RICHMOND, YA., NOVEMBER, 1858. NO. 11. 



[From the Transactions of the Virginia State Ag- 

 ricultitral Society^ 



The Economy of Farm-made Putrescent 

 Manures— In reference to their Prepar- 

 ation. Preservation, and best Applica- 

 tion. 



BY EDMUr?D RUFFIN, ESQ. 



[Continued fjom'page 588.] 



The application and action of putrescent 

 manures — and especially of barn-yard or 

 winter-made manure. 



For nearly twenty years, the manure 

 from my stable and cow-yard has been 

 mostly, and, so far as circumstances per- 

 mitted, applied on the surface of the land, 

 and to clover. To most persons, this mode 

 of application may seem the most waste- 

 ful and- destructive of fertilizing princi- 

 ples. But, according to my limited expe- 

 rience and information, as well as to rea- 

 son and sound theory, this mode is the 

 cheapest, the most convenient, and also 

 the most profitable use that can be made 

 of the ordinary manures for field crops, 

 wherever clover is suited to the soil and 

 climate; and it is the more cheap and 

 profitable, compared to the usjsal modes* 

 of application, in proportion as 'the ma- 

 41 



nure applied is in a coarse and unrotted 

 condition. 



Before proceeding to tne details of this 

 process, and endeavouring to show its pe- 

 culiar advantages, it will be necessary to 

 make some general observations on the 

 action of putrescent or alimentary ma- 

 nures, and the causes and manner of their 

 waste ; from which premises, if they be 

 correct, may be deduced what would be 

 the most or the least wasteful modes of 

 application, even without the support of 

 my experience and testimony. 



Putrescent manures are composed of 

 vegetable or animal matters, or mixtures 

 of both. All such manures are subject to 

 decomposition, or rotting ; and, therefore, 

 to the gradual change and final destruc- 

 tion of their substance, and waste of all 

 the parts not put to use during the pro- 

 gress of decay. The parts thus subject to 

 waste are capable of feeding and supporting 

 plants; and hence, in their main value 

 and proper use, putrescent manures are 

 (or ought to be) almost entirely alimentary 

 in their action. All vegetable manures 

 contain some mineral and indestructible 

 j)arts — earthy, saline or metalic. But 

 these parts are so minute in quantity, that 

 they scarcely need to be mentioned as ex- 

 ceptions to the general character of pu- 



