82 



ORANGE CULTURE. 



In a valuable little book, called " Talks on Manure,'' by- 

 Joseph Harris. He tells us that one ton of stable manure con- 

 tains only twelve pounds of nitrogen, six pounds of phosphoric 

 acid, and thirteen pounds of potash, and these are its only ele- 

 ments of practical value. Think of it, out of two thousand 

 pounds of matter, only thirty-one pounds of manure — all the rest 

 waste ; and here is the plan Mr. Harris proposes (and has proven 

 for years to be all that he claims) for increasing the j^roperties 

 of the proportions of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, and 

 reducing the amount of waste to be handled. 



Instead of throwing the manure out of the stables, and put- 

 ting it in piles to be leached and sun-dried, keep it when it drops ; 

 keep the stable well littered with straw, grass, pine-needles, and 

 sawdust, which answer the double purpose of making good beds 

 for the animals to lie on, and of absorbing the liquid manures 

 and the gases of the other fermenting excrements. The urine of 

 domestic animals is worth much more than the dung, and this I 

 have found the best and cheapest way of j^reserving it. Keep a 

 good supply of " trash" on hand, and every two or three days, as 

 the stalls become foul, cover them with a fresh layer. 



Let it stand during the whole season, and in the spring have 

 it out and distribute it. The whole mass will be decomposed and 

 comparatively dry. 



One load of such manure is worth half a dozen that has been 

 made in the usual way, and all the labor of repeated handling 

 will have been avoided. 



We have now said quite enough to prove one assertion a 

 while ago, that there is no excuse for any man in Florida, who 

 can procure the services of a horse and cart, for not having a 

 sufficiency of fertilizer for his grove. 



If he has no horse of his own, it would be an easy matter to 

 go out in the piney woods or hammock, rake up a number of 

 piles of trash, and then hire a horse and cart for a day to haul 

 them to his compost pen. 



In applying fertilizers to trees, the latter should be treated 

 rationally. A surfeit of rich food w^ill derange the animal sys- 

 tem, and so it will the vegetable. Too large quantities of ma- 



