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manured with even extravagant quantities of such 

 material, decline in productive capacity to such a 

 degree, that the gardeners are compelled every few 

 years to change the character of the manures em- 

 ployed. 



This is a most instructive fact. My own observa- 

 tion of market gardens had impressed me with 

 the idea that manures were applied, on nearly all of 

 them, in a most wasteful and unscientific manner, 

 and that, as a result, the lands were in what might 

 be called a diseased condition. Still, I supposed that 

 they might be denominated rich, and would, by ro- 

 tation and good culture, produce maximum crops, 

 even under a continuance of the same system of 

 manuring. A scientific man would, of course, have 

 resort to lime, soda, potash and bone dust, as a cor- 

 rective of this diseased condition, so to speak ; but 

 I would not readily doubt the intrinsic value of the 

 manures employed. 



The statement made by Mr. Henderson is so new 

 and so striking that I quote the language : — 



"In applying manures to the soil," he says, "we 

 have, iong ago, discovered the great importance of 

 an alternation of different kinds. When I first be- 

 gan business as a market gardener, I had opportu- 

 nities of getting large quantities of rich material 

 from the scavengers of Jersey City : this was mixed 

 with stable manure, charcoal, saw dust, or any other 

 absorbent most convenient, and applied, so mixed, 

 at the rate of about 30 tons per acre. The crops 

 raised with this manure were enormous for two or 

 three years, but it gradually began to lose its efi'ect; 

 and, in Jive years from the time we began to use it, 

 it required nearly double the weight of this compost 

 t» produce even an average crop. 



Mr. Henderson adds that, with the soil abundantly 

 supplied with rich composts, he has found the use 

 of guano, at the rate of 1,200 lbs. per acre, and 

 bone dust, at the rate of 2000 lbs. per acre, highly 

 useful in alternation, or in combination with even 

 stable manure. 



I have made these preliminary remarks for the 

 purpose of showing that even the best (or richest) 

 manures, when employed in an uskillful manner, are 

 not sure to produce the desired result, in high farm- 

 ing or gardening, — and I hope, also, to show that 

 some waste substances, little esteemed by many per- 

 sons, possess a very high value as manure, — at least 

 when ussd in combination with the usual manures 

 of the garden, in that admirable laboratory, the 

 compost heap. 



I now proceed to the enumeration of "Waste 

 Substances ": — 

 Tanner's Waste.— The hair, pieces of skins, 



and effete lime, produced as a waste by tanners, pro- 

 perly composted, has a value far exceeding its usual 

 cost, when compared with stable manure. It has 

 long been sold in this city at 50 cents per horse-load. 

 It should be mixed with loam, and frequently turned 

 until well decomposed. As a permanent fertilizer, 

 it is of much value, on nearly all soils and for all 

 purposes. The waste produced by morocco dres- 

 sers and furriers is more valuable than that from 

 common tanneries. 



Brewer's Waste.— The waste Hops of the 

 breweries form a valuable substance. It is especi- 

 ally useful as a top-dressing or mulching for Straw- 

 berry beds, — in winter to protect the plants from 

 the frost, and in summer to keep the fruit clean and 

 to shade the soil. The ciiief constituents of Hops, 

 when decomposed, is about the same as those of 

 leaf mould or rotten straw, — perhaps less varied and 

 important,— but still they have been found highly 

 useful as a fertilizer, when ploughed in, in large 

 quantities upon the richest market gardens. Chem- 

 istry alone is not sufficient to explain some facts like 

 this. 



Old Lime Rubbish— The plastering taken from 

 old walls, especially that which contains hair, is 

 an article well worth gathering for many purposes, 

 — more particularly, for the fruit and flower garden. 

 I have come to the conclusion that effete lime, or 

 old lime, that which has been burnt and slacked for 

 a long time, is much more valuable than is com- 

 monly supposed. Lime, when united with sand 

 and hair, in plastering mortar, produces, no doubt, 

 nitrate of lime, and valuable silicates and sulphates, 

 which renders old lime rubbish more valuable than 

 even fresh burnt lime. Fruit trees, flowers, and 

 even vegetables, seem always to luxuriate in old 

 lime, such as old shell beds, the site of old build- 

 ings, &c. Some remarkable instances of this might 

 be cited. Old lime rubbish should be pounded up 

 and screened, and made as fine as possible before it 

 is used. It will be found most useful, perhaps, in 

 very rich garden soils, or in those which are close, 

 wet and heavy. 



Pork Packers' Sast.— The refuse salt of the 

 pork packing houses may often be bought for one- 

 third the price of clean salt, and in small quantities, is 

 highly useful. This salt contains much fat, blood, 

 and animal matter. Strewn upon the garden at the 

 rate of 5 to 10 bushels to the acre, in the Fall or 

 early in the Spring, it has the efi'ect, in most cases, 

 of driving away cut-worms, and other injurious in- 

 sects ; it keeps the soil moist, and it aids in the 

 chemical actions which are constantly going on in 

 the soil. My opinion is, that it aids materially in 



