be adopted.

Before closing this chapter, it may be well to remark that there are
various other fertilizers, such as the _ammoniacal liquor of
gas-houses_, _soapers' wastes_, _bleachers' lye_, _lees of old oil
casks, etc._, which we have not space to consider at length, but which
are all valuable as additions to the compost heap, or as applications,
in a liquid form, to the soil.

[What are the advantages arising from burying manure in its
green state?

Which is generally preferable, this course, or composting? Why?]

In many cases (when heavy manuring is practised), it may be well to
apply organic manures to the soil in a green state, turn them under, and
allow them to undergo decomposition in the ground. The advantages of
this system are, that the _heat_, resulting from the chemical changes,
will hasten the growth of plants, by making the soil warmer; the
carbonic acid formed will be presented to the roots instead of escaping
into the atmosphere; and if the soil be heavy, the rising of the gases
will tend to loosen it, and the leaving vacant of the spaces occupied by
the solid matters will, on their being resolved into gases, render the
soil of a more porous character. As a general rule, however, in ordinary
farming, where the amount of manure applied is only sufficient for the
supply of food to the crop, it is undoubtedly better to have it
previously decomposed--_cooked_ as it were, for the uses of the
plants--as they can then obtain the required amount of nutriment as fast
as needed.

ABSORPTION OF MOISTURE.

It is often convenient to know the relative power of different manures
to absorb moisture from the atmosphere, especially when we wish to
manure lands that suffer from drought. The following results are given
by C. W. Johnson, in his essay on salt, (pp. 8 and 19). In these
experiments the animal manures were employed without any admixture of
straw.

PARTS
1000 parts of horse dung, dried in a temperature
of 100 degrees, absorbed by exposure
for three hours, to air saturated
with moisture, of the temperature of
62 degrees 145
1000 parts of cow dung, under the same circumstances,
absorbed 130
1000 parts pig dung 120
1000 " sheep " 81
1000 " pigeo