Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-12-23
agricultural department.
COriginal.]
MANURE.

MANURE.
The original meaning of the word manure
was ito cultivate with the hand" 1t is derived
from the French word "maneuver," which
literally means to move the hand. The word,
however, has long since given up its etymo-
logical meaning, and is now universally used
to denote any substance which renders soil
fertile on the application of that substance.
In other words, it is either verb or noun,
and means either fertilizer or to fertilize.
In the making and applying manure, ma
ture must be consulted. 1t is always haz-
ardous undertaking to act contrary to the
laws of nature. Complete failure follows such
an effort. tits wise to watch nature and fol-
low in her footsteps. A painter who would
undertake to paint tree, not as a tree is
found growing; but tree as it exists in his
Imagination, might show that he could use
brush with skill, but would be regarded as
crazy. He must copy from nature or fail.
Just so it is with the farmer in making and
applying manure. If he follow nature, he
will succeed. Ifhe do not follow nature, he
will fail
Every farmer is accustomed to speak Of
fresh land and of old land. He speaks of one
of his fields as being fresh or new land, and Of
another field as old land. The former is re-
garded as far more productive than the latter.
The fresh field he regards as being capable
ofproducing good crop without any manure; ;
but the old land must be manured or it will
produce very little. Now it is evident that
the words "old" and "new" in this connection,
can only be used in relative sense. Both
fields were made at the same time. Abso
lutely, one is as old as the other. Old and
new, as applied to field, or piece Of ground,
has no refertsee at all to the period of its
creation. Old, when used to describe field,
simply denotes that the field has become ex-
hausted, or in plain speech, has lost some
thing which it once possessed. Now what has
it lost? The chemist will tell US it has lost
this and that salt; but any farmer need be
at no loss to tell what has taken place to cause
the field to be called old. In farmers phrase,
the top surface is gone. When the field was
cleared, there was a coating of black earth all
over its surface. This is gone. This black
earth, or top surface, was nothing but decayed
vegetable matter. The more vegetable mat
ter that had decayed upon the surface, the
thicker was this coat of black earth, and the
more productive was the field. Nature always
makes an effort to compensate for all losses.
What the trees absorb from the ground dur
ing the summer, they return in one way and
another during the autumn and spring. This
natural process of mauuring land, or of COM
pensating for losses, seems to indicate to the
farmer the proper mode of procedure. The
forest affords, for him, in abundance, the prop
er manure by the use of which he can make
his old fields new. All he has to do is to
haul leaves and decayed wood, throw the
whole in pile and let it rot, and then spread
it over his old lands and they will be made
fresh. 1.-The will add to this pile his stable
and cowpen manure, remembering to keep the
stable and cowpen manure deeply covered by
the leaves and vegetable mold, he will have
the very thing he needs to make corn grow
we'll on old worn out land.
This mode Of making manure is in accord
auce with what we see everywhere in nature.
Our forest bottoms become rich by catching
the vegetable matter which washes down from
the surrounding hills. Manure, made as in
dicated, is the cheapest manure that can be
made. 1t really costs nothing but the time
and trouble of applying it.