The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1886-01-14

III agricultural knowledge. His unpar-
alleled genius is exemplifed by his won
derful knowledge of practical human
affairs as we'll as of his thorough under
standing of human nature. But while
his knowledge of practical agriculture
was extensive, yet we do not find that he
had any of that insight into the inner
life of the farm which might have been
expected from the greatest poet the
world has produced. We are led to this
remark by reading the lines Of his in
which he says:
"The earth's thief
That feeds and breeds by compostpre
stolen
From general excrement"
This is a low and base view of the
necessary practice of manuring and
very impe9ect idea of what manure j..
True. the common understanding of j!
is much like this, but it is not just OF
worthy one in any sense. Manure is by
no means wholly excrementitious mat
ter, nor was it so in Shakespeare
time, when the art of making compOSts
and the use of burned clay and
lime were commonly practced. And
even eXcrementtious matter, although
disagreeable and disgusting to the com
mon sense. when considered as manure,
loses its OtfcnsiveneSs, and may even be
thought of with something akin to pleas
ure as one considers the wonderful trans
formations wrought by nature in the
processes of manuring and the growth
of plants. Instead of the coarse words
of the poet might be used the truer ones:
"The earth's recreator,
Which ont of death makes life,
And from dead matter brings
New verdure, flowers and fruits
Such, indeed, is the true sense in
which manure is to be considered Ii is
dead matter; the surplus waste of life,
and the beautiful clover blossom which
the farmer plows under the furrow
should be no more highly thought of in
its manural sense than the refuse of il
after it has contributed to the support of
COW and her product of delicious milk
and rich, unctuous cream and fragrant
golden butter. All dead matter is disa.
greeabe TIE disgust of Hamlet As he
smelled the dccayed skull which the old
grave-digger threw out of the re-dag
grave was far different from the tender
ness with which a related survivor would
regard the similar cherished remains OF
an ancestor 1t is the sense in which we
consider such things which give, otlcnse
in one case and pleasure in another.
And the farmer who glories in the big
ness of his manure pile never expert
enceS the disgust of the stranger who
passes along the road on the other side
of the fence, and, as Hamlet remarked,
thinks, if he does not say: "And smells
so; taught
The thoughtful farmer may learn
many pleasing and instructive lesson
as he works in his yards, and makes his
compost heaps, spreads the manure, top
dresses his wheat, which is to make the
fragrant new baked loaf which is lux
ury unsurpassed on the table and
watches the change of this dead waste
matter into the verdant luxuriant herb
age; the swect-Scented rose, the luscious
peach, the melting sugary pear. the
Juicy grape, the fattening corn, and the
infinitely varied products of the garden,
the orchard and the field. How it il
done is n mystery which the chemist
can not reveal to him, nor how the NAL
cdorous wastes can be made to produce
ttle various sweet scents and agreeable
tlavors which all these products possess.
Nevertheless, faint idea of it may be
gained as the farmer on the winter even
ingS studies his bandbooks of chemistry,
and learns that the pear odor, the pine
apple flavor and The numerous ilavoring
OdOrs and essences of the cook are al
most identical il composition with some
Of the most intolerable scents of the al
cohOls and the ethcrs, and by what
comparatively small and uncomfortable
change of elements these effects are pro-
duCcd, in many cases a mere rearrango-
ment of atoms, much in the same man
ner as one might rearrangc pile of
bricks into round or square or Octag-
onal one, or into long, narrow one.
or into a short, wide one. AID with the
very same materials form entirely dir
fercnt combinations. This is a rough
and familiar way of explaining this kind
of chemical combinations of atoms, but
ii expresses the precise nature Of the
change and helps to make II under
stood.
Maturing is entirely chemical pro-
cess, and the ordinary barnyard manure
differs only in form from those so-called
artificial compounds which We term
commercial fertilizers. Indeed We have
often an erroneous conception OF what
manure is, for the majority of farmers
believe it contains everything that is
needed by the soil for the production of
crops; while on the contrary il is largely
deficient in the most valuable elements,
and the larger part of it consists of
water and carbonaceOus elements which
some persons would have us believe are
worthless for plant food. The truth is
and it has only been learned within
forty years past-that farmers can not
depend on the barnyard alone for ma
nure, but are compelled TO use every
Rrtilizing substance which they can
procure, and that nitrate of soda, phOs-
phate of lime, lime, gypsum, salt, pot
ash, magnesia and various nitrogcnous
substances are indispensable for the
profitable culture of farm crops, includ-
ing fruits, to help out the deficiencies of
manure. But manure differs in no de-
gree from these substances in its ele-
mentS; its form is different, and so is its
source, and the farmer may reasonably
look upon all of them in the same light
precisely, as plant food, and material
from which new and living matter is
produced by a process and change as
wonderful in its power and wisdom a.
the original creation of organized Gv-
inc substance. Henry !SteWdrt. in ~
y Times.