110 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Amm. 
ent fertilizing properties, viz: the Cow, Horse and Hog 
manure, and human excrements. On what does this 
difference depend? We learn from chemical analysis, 
that the quantity of salts which they contain is very 
nearly the same in all, hence the inference is legiti¬ 
mate, that it does not depend on the salts—for if the 
salts were the source of their fertilizing properties, 
they would, contrary to the experience of practical 
men, be of equal value to the agriculturist. And so 
of the humic acid, or genine-—for that is of equal qual¬ 
ity in.the horse and human excrements; but not so with 
the nitrogen, which exists in very different proportions. 
The experiments made by the Prussian authorities, 
to ascertain whether the contents of the sewers,, in the 
cities of Berlin and Dresden, could be applied with 
profit to the barren lands in their vicinities, are replete 
with instruction. Those experiments were made and 
continued through a series of years. The result satis¬ 
factorily demonstrated, that if a soil in its natural con¬ 
dition, without manure, would yield a crop of three to 
one, for the seed sown, it w T ould with cow dung yield 
seven, with horse dung ten, and with human excrement 
fourteen , While analysis show’s that this, their rela¬ 
tive value, is just the relative proportion of nitrogen. 
Here then is science harmonizing with the experience 
of the practical farmer. While we can find science in 
the laboratory of the chemist, confirming, while it ex¬ 
plains the experience of the practical husbandman, we 
are strengthened in following on in the pathway she 
would lead us. When science goes farther, and sheds 
her light where all before w T as darkness, we are re¬ 
joiced to follow reverently, if not confidingly, her teach¬ 
ings; but when those teachings conflict with what ex¬ 
perience has demonstrated to be true, w r e should inter¬ 
rogate her farther before we venture to, proceed. 
Professor Johnston has told us, that the influence of 
ammonia on vegetation appears to be of a very power¬ 
ful kind—it seems not only to promote the rapidity and 
luxuriance of vegetation, but to exert a powerful con¬ 
trol over the functions of vegetable life. And again he 
says, the important influence w’hich ammonia exercises 
over the growth of plants, is only to be explained on 
the supposition that numerous transformations of or¬ 
ganic substances are effected in the inferior of living 
vegetables, or a re-arrangement of the elements of 
which ammonia consist's. Ammonia is a compound of 
hydrogen and nitrogen —and out of every 10\) parts by 
weight of ammonia, we have 82a of nitrogen. Ammo¬ 
nia is the form in whi'ch nitrogen is found in our ma¬ 
nures, and is evolved as the product of the decomposi¬ 
tion of animal and vegetable, substances. If, then, 
this principle is the agent upon which fertility in the 
vegetable world mainly depends, as I have endeavored 
to show, we have a scale by which we may measure 
the relative value of manures, and by which our rules 
may be formed for the construction of our compost 
heaps, that will enable us to secure, with the least di¬ 
minution, their active principles. Our senses will al¬ 
ways discover to us the substances containing nitrogen 
from the tendency that characterises them to run into 
a state of putrefaction, and in the process of putrefac¬ 
tion to form alkalies; while other manures decay, with¬ 
out putrefying, and form acids instead of alkalies. 
In the list of substances, valuable as manures, ar¬ 
ranged according to their relative value, taking such a 
scale for our guide, we place first on the list those sub¬ 
stances that have received the least care, and have 
been regarded by the generality of farmers as of the 
least practical value—I refer to the liquid excrement 
of man and animals. 
In the composition of human urine, there does not 
enter a single salt which is not essentially an ingredi¬ 
ent in all plants; its fertilizing property is found in 
the fact, that almost all the nitrogen that makes its 
escape from the body, makes its exit through the urine 
That amount, in a full grown man or animal, is equal 
to the amount of nitrogen contained in the food on 
which the body is daily fed—-and as nitrogen is the 
only substance that forms muscle, and meets the daily 
muscular expenditure of every working man and ani 
mal, (unless there be other sources of assimilation than 
those now knowm to physiologists,) that amount is not 
inconsiderable. The urine of the horse is but little- 
less valuable than that of man—and that of the cow 
but little less than the horse. "When we consider with 
what ease these may be saved by means of absorbing 
substances, that are within the reach of every farmer, 
how can we justify their shameful wmste ? Repeated 
trials of their use, have abundantly satisfied me, that 
the increased growth of the crop to which they have- 
been applied, has abundantly compensated for the little- 
labor bestowed in their collection. 
Next on the scale, according to their relative value, 
we have the excrements of our domestic fowls. Since- 
their food consists mainly of nitrogenized substances,, 
and as we have in all the feathered tribe, the liquid and 
solid excrement combined, we may readily understand 
w-hy to the prudent farmer, the poultry-yard renders 
such efficient aid in increasing his resources. Analo¬ 
gous in its composition and value is guano—the excre¬ 
ment of the sea fowl. To those in the interior of the 
country, that have not at their command this rich fer¬ 
tilizer, an admirable substitute is found in the dung 
of the domestic fowl. In confirmation of the position 
that it is the nitrogen that contributes more than any 
of the salts to the value of guano , we may remark, 
that analysis gives us in the best article from 8 to 
per cent, of nitrogen, while in those that have disap¬ 
pointed the agriculturist in their use, not more than 1| 
per cent, has been found. 
Next follow blood, and animal matter-^-the carcases- 
of our domestic animals—as horses, cows, hogs, sheep, 
dogs, and fish; with their coverings—the hides, 
hair, wool, feathers, hoofs, horns, and nails, &.c. Sub¬ 
stances rich in nitrogen should be made to impart to- 
beds of peat and loam, the ammonia that escapes dur¬ 
ing putrefaction, instead of u wasting their sweetness 
on the desert air.” And when they have done this, 
the wise farmer will see to it, that the bones that have- 
constituted the frame -work of the animals, be restored 
in some form to the soil, and thus be made to give back 
to it the phosphates that have been abstracted by the 
successive crops that it has yielded. 
Next follow the droppings of the domestic animals. 
The resources of the farmer will be much increased by 
composting the horse and yard manure w 7 ith peat, with 
which the careful farmer will see that his yard is well 
supplied. By this process, not only are the gases* 
which.are evolved during fermentation secured by the 
peat, as an absorbent, but the mineral substances, and 
salts which it contains, locked up as they are by super- 
abounding acids, are set free, and neutral salts are 
formed, by which the peat itself becomes almost as 
valuable to the farmer as the dung itself with which it 
is composted. 
Science and experience harmonize in their testimony 
that when compost heaps are made under sheds, their 
active principles are more certainly secured, being 
saved from the wasting process of leaching under rains 
on the one hand, and evaporation under exposure to the 
burning sun on the other,. 
Protection from the rains would seem to be necessary 
from the fact, that whatever there is in manure that 
contributes to vegetable growth, must be soluble in 
water, for plants take it up in no other condition than 
that of solution. And on the other hand, if there is a 
large quantity of vegetable matter in a dry state, to 
be composted, experience has taught us, it should be 
