46 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



matter rendered soluble by that process, and a part of the 

 manure is therefore lost. The best cultivators use it, as fresh 

 as it can be procured, and the practical results of this mode 

 are exactly conformable to the theory of its operation. The 

 carbonic acid, formed by its incipient fermentation, must be 

 partly dissolved by the water which is set free in the same 

 process, and thus becomes capable of being absorbed by the 

 roots of plants. As a manure, the effects of sea-weed must 

 depend on this carbonic acid, and on the soluble mucilage 

 which it may contain. Some fucus has been found to have 

 lost half its weight by fermentation, and afforded less than 

 one-twelfth of mucilaginous matter ; from this we may conclude, 

 that some of this substance is destroyed in the course of fer- 

 mentation. 



The dung of birds, either wild or domesticated, affords a 

 powerful manure, particularly that of the former. We are 

 informed by Humbold, that the guano, which is used to fertilize 

 the barren plains of Peru, is employed in such quantities for 

 he maize crops, that fifty vessels are laden with it annually at 

 Chinche, each of which carries from fifteen hundi'ed to two 

 thousand cubical feet. 



Pigeon's dung was, and still is, in great esteem in Persia, 

 where they manure their melons with it, and was sold at a high 

 price during the famine in Samaria, when a cab, not quite 

 three pints corn measure, sold for five pieces of silver. It is 

 a powerful manure, and should only be used as a compound, 

 or if used as a simple, the greatest care must be observed in 

 the disti'ibution of it. We have found it the best manure for 

 strawberries of any which we have tried. If used as a com- 

 pound with fresh loam, cow-dung, or other manure, it should lie 

 for some time to be sufficiently incorporated, so as to admit of 

 equal distribution. 



The dung of sheep and deer affords good manure, but is 

 seldom used in gardens ; nevertheless, if circumstances would 

 admit of it, sheep folded for a few nights on any spare garden- 

 ground would do much to improve it ; in such a case, how- 

 ever, it would be necessary to have it dug in as soon as pos- 

 sible, as by lying long on the ground, the better parts of it 

 soon escape by evaporation. Its chemical properties are nearly 



