By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 251 



would have yielded. The crop succeeded in both cases ; 

 but the plants upon the green Fern grew with greatly more 

 rapidity than the others, and even than those which had 

 been manured with the produce of my fold and stable-yard, 

 and were distinguishable, in the autumn, from the plants in 

 every other part of the field, by the deeper shade of their 

 foliage. 



I had made, in preceding years, many similar experiments 

 with small trees (particularly those of the Mulberry when 

 bearing fruit in pots), with similar results : but I think it 

 unnecessary to trespass on the time of the Society by stating 

 these experiments, conceiving those I have mentioned to be 

 sufficient to shew that any given quantity of vegetable matter 

 can generally be employed, in its recent and organized state, 

 with much more advantage than when it has been decom- 

 posed, and no inconsiderable part of its component parts has 

 been dissipated and lost, during the progress of the putre- 

 factive fermentation . 



