PART IV. AGRICULTURE. 235 



clean a whole farm, and the future attention of a judicious hus- 

 bandman will ever take care to keep it so. The destruction of 

 insects, or pernicious animals, is also a duty incumbent on the 

 cultivator ; but in agriculture it is too trifling to demand con- 

 sideration here. 



3. Manuring. — Manures may be divided into two kinds; 

 those which promote vegetation, by augmenting the quantity 

 of vegetable nourishment, as all vegetable and animal matters ; 

 and those which promote it, by bringing what already exists 

 into action, or by communicating to the soil the power of seiz- 

 ing from the atmosphere, digesting, and gradually administer- 

 ing the nutritive principle to the plant, as lime, salts, gypsum, 

 and most mineral substances, do. The proper application of 

 putrescent manures is one of the most important, and at the 

 same time the most critical branches of cultivation. A given 

 quantity of manure inserted in the soil in a proper stage of pu- 

 trescenc} r , when the soil is in the fittest state to receive it, when 

 it is no sooner distributed on the surface than it is covered, and 

 when the crop is soon after to be planted or sown, will produce 

 astonishing effects. Apply the same quantity either in a more 

 or less putrescent state, leaving it exposed to the atmosphere 

 for weeks, and covering it as long before the seed or plants 

 are inserted, and it will produce comparatively no effect. The 

 qualities of putrescent manure are of such a fleeting nature. 



