apted to many uses. The second-growth locust is not so durable as
the native forest-tree, as found in parts of Ohio; but, cut at a
suitable age and at the right season of the year, it is as durable as
white cedar, and much more valuable. The profits of the culture would be
great. An acre of locust-trees fifteen or twenty years old would be
worth fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars. The expense of growing
it, aside from the use of the land, would be trifling. The grove would
afford a good place for fowls, while the blossoms would be nearly equal
to white clover for honey. The limbs would make excellent wood, and the
ground would need no planting for a second growth. Fortunate will be the
men on the prairies of the West, and along the railroads and rivers of
the land, who shall early plant fields of locust. The profits of it will
greatly exceed the increase in the value of the land.

MANURES.

Soils, manures, and preparing the soil--plowing, harrowing, &c.--are the
three great subjects in any good agricultural work. We shall treat this
subject under the following divisions:--

1. The substances of which manures are composed.

2. Preparation and saving of manures.

3. Time and modes of application.

4. The principles of their action upon plants.

Manures are of two classes--called putrescent and fossil. The putrescent
are composed of decayed, or decaying, vegetable and animal substances.
The fossil are those dug from the earth, as lime, marl, and gypsum. All
vegetable substances not useful for other purposes are valuable for
manure. Rotten wood, leaves, straw, and all the vegetable parts of
stable manure, and any spoiled vegetables or grain, are all valuable. At
the South, their immense quantities of cotton-seed are a mine of wealth,
if properly prepared and applied as manure. Animal manures consist of
the animal parts of stable manure, dry and liquid, parts of bones,
brine, spoiled meat, kitchen slops, soapsuds, and all dead animals. In
decaying, these substances all pass through a process of fermentation.
Left exposed without suitable care, they become unhealthy and offensive.
It is probable that a large share of the diseases suffered in the rural
districts are caused by these impurities; and the impossibility of
keeping large cities free from these substances is the cause of their
increased mortality. In the country, a little timely caution and labor,
in removing these substances and regulating their fermen