THE CULTIVATOR. 
69 
185 L 
a cord of matter collected at the establishment, is 
worth at least five or six cords of the best stable 
manure for a top-dressing. This we cannot doubt, 
For here are the blood, the wool, pieces of the skin 
of the animal, and many other substances, all col¬ 
lected together. A fermentation takes place b}” 
which the richest gases are formed. Such a com¬ 
post heap, with an addition of loam and mud, would 
be invaluable for a top-dressing. But though, in 
most cases, all these substances cannot be procured, 
many of them can and should be saved by every one 
who is desirous of improving his lands. Those who 
are near the sea, or near the market, can procure an 
abundance of fish to add to the compost. Nothing 
is better for soils than this. Ashes should also be 
added, and when additions of manure are made, they 
should be covered with mud or loam to prevent 
waste. 
We need not enter more minutely into the details of 
forming the compost heap; it is sufficient to say, in a 
word, that everjThing capable of fermentation may be 
added to it. The lower lajmr should be of loam or 
mud. Nothing is more common among farmers, on the 
death of a horse, or any other animal, than to throw 
the body away. It is estimated by some, that the 
body of a single horse, when divided and mixed with 
peat,mud and loam, will make a compost worth fifteen 
or twenty cords of the best and richest manure. This 
is perhaps too high an estimate, but animal sub¬ 
stances ferment rapidly, or rather they may be said 
*o putrify without fermenting, so quick is their de¬ 
composition. Leaves, grasses, moss, straw, and 
other substances of like nature may be used, and 
when they are well fermented, the heap should be 
thrown over; and if it is made long and narrow, so 
as to expose the greater surface to the air, it will be 
better. Whenever such a compost has been used as 
a top-dressing, it has produced the most astonishing 
effects. Many experiments have shown that this is 
the best way of using such a compost. In the fertile 
county of Hertford, in England, it is seldom used in 
any other way. It cannot be too highly recommended. 
Animals fed on rich food make the most valuable 
manure. This will serve to show why the manure 
from the pig-sty is so fertilizing. Swine are fed on 
a great variety of rich food. The actual profit of 
raising them in some places, arises mainly from the 
amount of substances they will mix together and 
make into good manure. Let the sty be supplied at 
intervals with mud, loam, and other vegetable mat¬ 
ter, and farmers will not complain of the cost of 
these animals. 
Liquid manures are highly useful to grasses. Care 
should be taken to apply them, also, to the compost 
heap. The richness of manure from the sty, is 
owing mostly to the great quantity of liquid matter; 
hence the importance of adding a great variety of 
vegetable substances, loam, and mud. In a word it 
may be said that all liquid manures contain a large 
amount of nitrogen, which is an important ingredient 
of ammonia. The importance of saving the liquid 
of stables, either with the compost, or to be applied 
by itself, may be seen, also, in the fact that the ex¬ 
ceeding richness of guano and the ordure of all 
fowls and birds, is due to the union of liquids and 
solids. Spent ley from the soap boiler, is also a 
powerful liquid application. It shows its good ef¬ 
fects for years, when properly applied. 
After fermentation has taken place in animal 
manures, in the compost heap or elsewhere, they 
may be spread without much loss by evaporation; 
and hence it matters not whether the top-dressing 
is applied in the autumn or in the spring. Plaster 
is better spread in the spring, when the moisture of 
the earth makes it immediately available. Not so 
with other manures. Some prefer the autumn for 
spreading these, while others prefer the spring, 
just before the thick grass surrounds and protects 
them from the sun and wind. The soil in autumn 
is not injured by the loaded cart, as it is apt to be 
in spring. Others still apply them after the first 
mowing, and before the summer rains. The new 
crop preserves the manures from drying up and wast¬ 
ing. This, however, is ordinarily too busy a season 
to attend to it with convenience. 
Natural Application of Chemistry to Agriculture. 
By J. H. Salisbury, M. D., Albany. 
The advantages to be derived from knowing the 
composition of rocks .—Soils are rocks broken and 
worn more or less fine. If a portion of any soil be 
taken and examined carefully, a greater or less 
number of small fragments of rock can be easily dis¬ 
covered with the naked eye. To separate these, 
place the soil in a small dish, and throw on a small 
quantity of water; agitate, and then decant or pour 
off the riley or turbid liquid, which holds in suspen¬ 
sion the finer particles of the soil. Repeat this a 
second, third and fourth time, or till the water which 
is poured on the soil after agitation, appears clear, or 
free from any fine particles of soil. 
Let the washings stand and settle. While this is 
going on, examine the materials in the dish which 
are too coarse to be suspended by the water. 
These will be found to be fragments of rocks. In 
some soils, nearly or quite the whole of them will 
consist of one kind of rock; in others many kinds 
mingled together. 
After the finer particles in the washings have sub¬ 
sided, pour off the clear liquid, and dry the fine soil 
which has settled. On examining this with a small 
magnifying glass, the whole of it, except a small 
quantity of organic matter, will be found to be com¬ 
posed of fragments of rocks, and simple minerals, in 
all respects similar to the larger fragments previous¬ 
ly examined, but many of them very minute. 
