THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



551 



plant. It promotes its luxuriance and 

 growth. It is mainly and perhaps wholly 

 taken up by the roots of the plant from 

 the soil, not being inhaled by the breath- 

 ing leaf as is carbonic acid. 



Liebig says, "The effect of an artificial 

 supply of ammonia as a source of nitrogen 

 is to accelerate the growth and develop- 

 ment of plants." And he attaches great 

 importance to this fact, and argues that it 

 should be taken into account in gardening 

 — especially in kitchen gardening, and as 

 much as possible in agriculture on a large 

 scale, when the time occupied in the 

 growth of plants is of importance, as it is 

 most certainly in our latitudes. Indeed 

 it is the most valuable fertilizer contained 

 in farm-yard manure, and it exists to a 

 greater extent in the liquid part than in 

 the solid excrement. And yet farmers — • 

 the great majority of them — provide no 

 means for conveying this important ferti- 

 lizer to the plant. 



The stable manure may be thrown out 

 under the eaves of the stable, and into the 

 street, with no absorbing mixture. Ihe 

 eaves of the stable have no fixtures to 

 convey the water into a cistern for the 

 use of the stock, but the dripping flood 

 inundates the manure heap, and leaches 

 away into the street ditch, to be turned 

 perhaps by a shrewd neighbour, if one 

 happens to live lower down a declivity, 

 into his own fields by a furrow, or five 

 minutes' use of the spade, and irrigates 

 his fields, furnishing his crops with a 

 wealth of nutriment and stimulant — the 

 gold your manure. We have seen it 

 done. We are not imagining anything. 

 The same principle applied to commerce 

 would ruin every man who indulged in it. 

 Suppose the merchant should throw gold 

 into the street, and depend upon the sil- 

 ver or currency received for profits, and 

 to replace and replenish his stock ; what 

 would be thought of him ? Does a farmer 

 know these facts — know he is losing the 

 best of his resources for the replenishment 

 of his farm, and still neglect to take meas- 

 ures to retain them ? Cannot afford to 

 provide against this waste ? If God had 

 not blessed us with a land unrivalled in 

 fertility, and had not provided in nature 

 compensation for the eonsumption of 

 plants, man, if left alone, would soon im- 

 poverish himself, and the earth would 

 become barren and unfruitful. 



Ammonia does not enter the plant by in- 

 halation (if we may use the term) through 

 the leaves. It is a gas, but there are few 

 plants that do not require it to knock for 

 admittance at the roots, and in company 

 (solution) with water; and here again we 

 must urge your attention to the saving the 

 liquid manure of your stock, so full of ni- 

 trogen for the plant. It has been sug- 

 gested to leave the stable floor open, with 

 a muck-bed under it, to receive the leak- 

 age. Another plan is, to have a close 

 floor, and litter the stable behind the stock 

 with muck, sawdust, or tanbark-charcoal. 

 And here we wish to say one word upon 

 the use of muck as an absorbent. Igno- 

 rant once of the philosophy of composting, 

 we helped a man (then considered more 

 progressive than his neighbours) to clean 

 out a swamp of its muck deposit — a pure- 

 ly vegetable substance. It was thrown 

 around an orchard at once, at the roots of 

 each tree. It had its effect, it is true ; 

 the trees grew maivellously. But, if in- 

 stead of depositing it thus to " save hand- 

 ling," it had been hauled to the large shed 

 in the barn-yard, and then mixed with the 

 stable manure, which was evaporating, 

 and leaching under the eaves on the South 

 side of the barn, we would have saved 

 enough by the operation to have paid the 

 expenses and produced more wonderful 

 effects still. Why.? Because that muck 

 was pure and (almost) unadulterated car- 

 bon — the best of absorbents, and that is 

 why we urge composting with it; it saves 

 for the use of the plant the ammonia in 

 the manure mixed with it. Attend, then, 

 to this matter, and save the liquid portion 

 of the manure in your j^ard and stables. 



Deep plowing has to do with the pro- 

 duction of ammonia. It enables the roots 

 of plants to penetrate and fill the subsoil 

 with vegetable matter, which by its decay 

 in the confined atmosphere, where the ac- 

 cess of the oxygen of the air is not easy, 

 gives rise to the production of ammonia. 

 When thu£ formed, it is chemically pre- 

 pared, and enters the roots of the bearing 

 plant to assist its growth. We said, the 

 ammonia of the atmosphere is absorbed 

 by rain, dews, &c., and returned to the 

 roots ; hence, the necessity of rain and 

 dews — the latter particularly, where vege- 

 tation is rankest and growing most rapidly, 

 requiring continual supplies of nitrogen. 

 Who can estimate the value of a heavy 



