312 
CULTIVATION OF FRUIT TREES AND FRUITS. 
In supplying fruit trees with manure, it is very possible that there is less difference in qualities 
of the solid excrements than has been supposed. Their qualities will evidently depend upon 
the nature of the food of the animal, the solid excrements consisting mainly of the undigested 
portions. Thus, the cow and horse being fed exclusively upon hay, their solid excrements 
will consist mostly of hay undigested. The following analyses will show the differences : 
Silex,. 
Excrements of the horse. 
Cow. 
63-000 
Phosphate of lime and magnesia,... 
21-400 
Carbonate of lime,. 
1-200 
Magnesia,. 
0-100 
Potash,. 
3-650 
Soda,. 
3-200 
Sulphuric acid. 
6-261 
Chlorine,. 
0-400 
o-oso 
Organic matter,... 
0-100 
0-120 
• 
98-710 
99-011 
The manure was made exclusively from hay, and also from the same hay; and it will be 
observed that there is a similarity in the composition of the two, particularly in the amount of 
silex, which is quite large, and which shows that silex is scarcely, if at all, assimilated, the 
amount in each case being nearly the same that would be obtained in the analysis of hay. The 
amount of alkalies is quite small in the excrement from the cow, when fed upon hay. They 
are richer in phosphates than that derived from the horse. The hay consisted of timothy, and 
was cut, as it appeared, when fully ripe. An idea of the value of a particular manure may be 
formed when it is known what the animal at§. For grass those manures are particularly valu¬ 
able, as the silica will remain mostly in a soluble state, and ready to enter into the tissues of 
the plant again. 
It will be obsererved that the foregoing fertilizers are not sufficiently rich in potash to be 
well adapted to the production of fruit, while in sulphuric acid they will answer a good pur¬ 
pose. Ashes, applied once in two years around the roots of trees, will supply the deficit bet¬ 
ter, probably, than any other fertilizer. It is highly probable that the cause of defective fruit 
will be found in the absence of potash, and the phosphates of lime, potash and soda. 
