90 
ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE. 
LESSON XVII. 
VEGETABLE MANURES. 
112. The Roughing down and covering in the and of the 
crops of green, juicy plants, to act as manure, was apractice 
of the ancient Romans, and is yet followed in Italy, and 
other parts oi the old world. This mode of fertilizing 
suits best in the warmer climates, where vegetation is 
rapid and luxuriant. The plants used for the purpose are 
of the leguminous kinds, clover, pease, buckwheat, etc. 
113. Green manures are often more costly than is gen¬ 
erally supposed. This is proved by deducting from their 
value, 1. The price of seed. 2. The cost of sowing, and 
the rent of the land for six months. We must infer from 
this, that this system is only profitable in the following 
cases: 1. When the lands are inaccessible to carts, or very 
remote from the farm-yard. 2. When other manures are 
not to be had, except at extravagant prices. 3. When 
here is a want of straw, or other litter, to make manure. 
114. The choice of the plants to be turned in must de¬ 
pend, in a great measure, upon climate. Thus, in the 
northern states clover flourishes; whereas, in the south 
the pea, in different varieties, is substituted for it. The 
south has doubtless many valuable acquisitions yet to 
make from Europe, in the way of herbaceous plants to be 
used both as fodder and as green manure. 
115. The proper moment to turn in all plants that are 
used for this purpose, is at the time of blooming; for, as 
maturity approaches, all the nutritive principles, distrib 
uted in the different organs, combine to nourish the oviary 
and form the seed. This last then seizes upon nearly a 
of the New-Englanders, should suffer cargoes of bones to leave Boston, t« 
enrich the rieJds of a foreign and a rival nation. 
