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By using muck as the basis of composts, we may also compound 
manures so as to adapt them to the special wants of certain crops. If 
we take the cabbage, for instance, which is a profitable crop to raise in 
the neighborhood of towns, by referring to Prof. Solly’s table it will 
be seen that this plant requires large quantities of potash and soda, 
with phosphoric and sulphuric acids, and chlorine, and a considera¬ 
ble proportion of lime. If, therefore, we take a quantity of muck 
mixed with charcoal and saturated with urine, and add to this super¬ 
phosphate of lime and common salt, we shall have a manure specially 
well adapted to the growth of the cabbage. The muck and charcoal, 
by their gradual decay, would supply carbonic acid and other matters ; 
by their power of condensing gases they would retain the ammonia of 
the urine and the gelatine of the bones, and thus supply the plants with 
nitrogen to form their protein compounds; the superphosphate of lime 
would yield sulphuric and phosphoric acids and lime, and common salt— 
which consists of the nauseous yellow gas chlorine in combination with 
sodium, the base of soda—would furnish chlorine and soda, while a 
dressing of fresh wood ashes applied to the land the previous fall, might 
serve the double purpose of destroying grubs, or other injurious insects, 
and supply potash largely, as well as other inorganic constituents. 
The cabbage and asparagus, in their wild state, are found growing by 
the sea shores of Europe. Salt may be applied with benefit to aspara¬ 
gus in quantities sufficient to kill weeds, and it is probable that a moder¬ 
ate application of salt to the cabbage tribe may prove useful in a State 
so far inland as Wisconsin. 
Ploughing under various green crops is another mode of enriching 
the land commonly practised. The roots of clover—the crop generally 
grown for this purpose—are said to go deeper into the soil in search of 
nutriment than those of wheat; consequently, when a crop of clover is 
ploughed under, it supplies, by its decay, a greater store of mineral 
matters to the wheat than it would otherwise have been able to obtain. 
The large amount of water contained in the fresh clover plants will be 
useful to the succeeding crop. The decomposition of the clover will 
also produce a considerable quantity of carbonic acid, as well as mineral 
matters; this gas may be absorbed by the roots, and directly contribute 
;to the growth of the succeeding grain crop. But from what is known 
