food; while in the darkness and under the shelter from winds, nitrates are formed and absorbed. It will be seen that the increase of fertility is greater than could be expected from all the manurial agents in the pea vines.

Clay soils, being more retentive of moisture and possessed of greater power of absorption, are less benefited by the mulch than those of a sandy character.

Like the questions of deep and shallow plowing and deep and surface manuring, that of plowing under the green vines, or allowing them to dry and partly rot upon the surface, will depend upon circumstances. They will contain and convey to the soil in the green state a greater quantity of fertilizing material and will decompose more rapidly. If intended to benefit a crop to be put in soon after they have reached a proper stage of growth, they must, of course, be plowed under green. Four weeks should elapse between turning under the vines and sowing or planting the crop, in order to allow a sufficient time for the most active decomposition to have passed, lest the heat evolved by the great mass of decaying green vegetable matter might be detrimental. For a spring crop, however, the vines should be left to die, and mulch the soil throughout the winter, unless indeed a second green crop, as of rye, is contemplated; because a bare fallow would be wasteful of the fertility supplied by the pea vines. It is an error that the bare soil deteriorates during summer only, for it is a common experience that a field of light soil, left bare after a late crop of sweet potatoes, shows a want of fertility the ensuing spring. Two crops of pea vines may be grown in a season; but after an interval of three or four weeks. To turn under a heavy growth properly, it must first be pressed down by a field roller or by dragging over it a heavy harrow with the teeth turned up; and it requires a good two-horso plow with a large sharp revolving coulter attached. To draw the vines into the furrows, a heavy chain with suf

ficient slack should be attached to the whiffletree and plow-beam. Capt. J. W. McAlpine has devised an iron hook "horn," which is attached to the plow-beam, as in figure

Fig. 1.-IRON HOOK OR "HORN " ATTACHED TO PLOW.

1. It works just in advance of the plow point; and on the surface its curvature corresponds to that of the mouldboard, and draws the vines into the furrow. The same person has also invented a roller, which has a set of five projecting knives, with which to cut the vines when the growth is very luxuriant. By driving twice over the field at right angles the vines are cut in ten-inch lengths, and can be turned under effectively. The roller is fixed to shafts or a tongue, and as it is too light, a weighted

Fig. 2.-ROLLER FOR CUTTING COW PEA VINES.

box is attached above the axle. The roller, figure 2, is fourteen inches in diameter, the knives five inches wide and ten inches apart. As neither of these inventions is patented, any one can use them.

STABLE MANURE.

Stable manure is a complete fertilizer, and is of all the most to be relied upon by the market-gardener, as it

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contains all the elements of fertility in available condition. No other is so well adapted to alter the physical condition of heavy soils, nor, when well rotted, better suits those of a sandy nature; nor is any other more apt to render the constituents of the soil available to plant food. Gardeners in the vicinity of cities may procure a sufficient supply and require no other manure, unless for a special purpose they desire to supplement it with a commercial fertilizer more rich in nitrogenous matter, such as Peruvian guano, fish scrap, etc. Those who are not so fortunately situated must utilize their smaller stock, by letting it form the basis of compost heaps to bring about and sustain the fermentation so necessary to break down the crude vegetable materials of which such heaps partly consist. Manures, to be promptly efficacious, should be in a state of at least partial decomposition, so that the elements of which they consist may be in a fit state to form new combinations, or act at once as plant food. To bring about this condition without waste of material and expense of time and labor, is one of the problems of the horticulturist. Once placed within reach of the absorptive power of the soil, there is no further loss by evaporation. If the manure pile could be merely kept sufficiently moist by rains, to prevent a too rapid fermentation, it might be advisable not to keep it under cover; but the rains in our climate are too often heavy enough to leach out valuable soluble parts of the largest heaps. The difference in the composition of covered and uncovered barn-yard manure is here shown.

Exposed to the weather, piled, turned and handled, without proper judgment and close attention, there is

danger of loss, besides the expense of time and labor. The general agriculturist, particularly on heavy soils, whose crops are of coarser growth, may apply manure green or fresh from the stables, when its effects are often so permanent as to be perceptible for many years; but the market-gardener's aim is to produce early crops of vegetables, and his manures must be in a readily available condition. He wants no permanent manures.

Permanence and insolubility are, in this case, synonymous. Luxuriant growth is an indication of the solubility of his fertilizers. He wants his manure pile to undergo such an amount of slow fermentation, as to break down the coarse fibrous vegetable matter it contains, so as to admit its being readily cut with a spade, and thus also to reduce its bulk.

COMPOSITION OF FRESH AND DECOMPOSED STABLE MANURE.

INGREDIENTS OF ASH.

Stable Manure.... 710 246 44.14.55.21.55.71.42.11.2 12.5 1.5 do. moderately rotted.. 750 192 58.0 5.0 6.3 1.97.01.82.6 1.6 16.81.9 do. thoroughly rotted.. 790 145 65.05.8 5.0 1.38.8 1.83.01.317.01.6

If piled so loosely as to admit air freely and be sufficiently moist, it will undergo fermentation so rapidly as to heat or firefang, and large quantities of the valuable, volatile carbonate of ammonia will evaporate, and the manure be rendered comparatively valueless. To avoid this too rapid fermentation, the pile may be broken down and turned whenever it begins to heat, until the process ceases to be too active. The escape of ammonia may be checked by mixing land plaster (sulphate of lime) with each load, so as to fix the ammonia as a sulphate (which is not volatile). The gardener near the

city, whose large pile daily receives considerable accessions, may resort to packing it so tightly as to limit the access of air, and consequently the rapidity of fermentation, until near planting time, or, if possible and better still, he may keep it too moist for rapid decay by adding night-soil from the city, which will at the same time improve its quality.

Gardeners near cities who accumulate a large stock of stable manure, do not generally place it under shelter, notwithstanding the accruing loss, but deposit it in suitable quantities for each field in a single pile, upon the headland convenient for use, and compact it by merely driving across the pile at each delivery. Never more than four hundred wagon loads are deposited in a pile. If, when finished, the heaps were covered completely with soil to the thickness of two or three inches, the escaping ammonia would be absorbed and fermentation retarded. It must be borne in mind, that even in winter we must limit the process of fermentation, and not encourage it, as is sometimes necessary in the Northern States; and we must also avoid leaching.

The fermentation of stable manure may be retarded by the admixture of substances not liable to rapid fermentation. The gardener in the country may resort to composting it with muck, woods-earth, or even good garden soil, dry and pulverized salt-mud, or the same material in the shape of a soft mush in order to avoid getting it in the form of large lumps into his manure, and may also use green marsh-grass (Spartina stricta), if he be located on "the salts." Vegetable refuse of every kind, with leaves from the woods, slops from the kitchen and wash-house, with the dung of those domestic animals which does not readily heat, as that of neat cattle and swine, in short, everything available that will supply plant food may be added to the heap. The dung of all kinds of poultry, the urine and night-soil of the farm,