82 
ELEBIENTS OF AGRICULTURE. 
application. Thus, the liquid manure from the stable may 
burn the plants to which it is applied, if it has not been 
fermented and mixed with a due proportion of water. 
79. Other manures again, though beneficial to the growth 
of plants, are often injurious by introducing and encour¬ 
aging the growth of weeds that are afterward found diffi¬ 
cult to extirpate. This is more commonly the case with 
unfermented manures. 
80. The vast importance of manure to the farmer is too 
generally acknowledged to make it necessary here to argue 
the question. The profits of the farmer depend upon the 
quantity of manure that he applies to his crops. It is very 
evident that the amount of labor required to produce a 
crop is the same for poor as for rich land; and yet what a 
difference in the yield ! 
QUESTIONS. 
1. What is manure 1 
2. How may manures be classed 1 
3. Are they of equal value ? 
4. What are the most valuable vegetable manures 1 
5. Will vegetable manures alone give to the soil the highest degree of fer¬ 
tility ? 
6. How are manures sometimes injurious ? 
7. On what do the profits of the farmer principally depend ? 
LESSON XII. 
MANURE (CONTINUED). 
81. Manure is a mixture of the excrement's of cattle 
with stable-litter. This is the most important species of 
manure to the farmer, as it is generally that which he can 
manufacture most easily. 
82. To enable himself to make the necessary quantity 
of manure, the farmer should keep a quantity of stock pro- 
