102 
LIQUID MANURES CHEMICALLY APPLIED. 
These applications of enrichment have become so very fashionable of late, af 
are so highly extolled, that it is scarcely possible to take up a calendar of weed- 
operations where there are not directions for using such and such compounc 
The subject is really of serious importance, and merits the interference of the phi! 
sophic chemist, to whom it is quite evident that the practice recommended 
empirical, and in no degree founded upon science. 
Let it not be understood that fluid manure is condemned. “ To let well alone 
and to persist in a line of conduct which, “as the rule,” is proved to be beneficis 
is both justifiable and wise ; the recommendation is yet so general, so indefinite, and i 
frequently guarded by expressions of caution, that something more precise is r 
quired of those who profess to look into causes. 
Were either the theory or practice confined to the field, or even the kitcHe 
garden, we should be unwilling to allude to it, in a work which is primarily devote 
to floriculture and botany; but we hear and read of the great utility of liquid manure 
when cautiously applied to Azaleas, Camellias, and members of the herbaceoi 
tenants of the greenhouse, the plant-house, the stove, and to the whole tribe < 
Geraniums and succulents. But then the question, What is liquid manure ? occur 
Some tell us authoritatively, that one of the best forms combines a little sheej 
dung digested in a volume of water, a portion of coal-soot, and a sprinkling of quid 
lime, the whole to be intimately stirred and blended together, and suffered to sut 
side till the floating liquid becomes entirely clear. Another gardener with whom thjj 
writer had once an interview, observed that he found great benefit from the liquor c 
Potter s guano ; but by far the greater number of practical gardeners give the prei 
ference to the dark brown drainage from farm-yard manure heaps, more or les 
diluted. Not many years since, a veteran in the art wrote us that the soft wate 
which percolated through a body of grass turf, (as, for instance, a sloping meado\ 
which drained itself into a clean ditch or rill,) contained all the nutritive matters ii 
solution which any fruit-bearing or ornamental plant could require. The las 
suggestion is the most wise, and evidently is grounded in wisdom, as we shall nov 
attempt to prove, by adducing a few chemical facts in order to controvert th( 
erroneous opinions entertained by the many. 
Plants, differing in their generic and specific characters, laborate and assimilate 
food, each according to its specific character ; therefore all and each require food suit- 
able in all respects accordingly. Nothing can be more true than that the three organic 
elements — oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, are common to all ; and it is equally so that 
the fourth element, nitrogen — otherwise called azote — enters into the composition ol 
many. It is certain, however, that these four simple elements are susceptible of 
innumerable modifications, combining in proportions so indefinite as to admit of no 
