Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/37

* MANURES AND MANUKING. 25 onous iiuuiuii':-, while tlior^e yiuwii upon soils well supiilied with liiis substancu are more beiie- litud by pliusphates and potasli. Upon iieavy soils phospluiles are likely to be more beneficial than nitrogen, while the reverse is the case on light dry soil. Sandy soils are as a rule de- ficient in potash, while clayey soils contain this element in larger quantities. Deep-rooting crops with long seasons of growth are able to ac- quire the necessary plant food where shallow- rooted and short-season crops would sufl'er. As regards the dillerent forms of fertilizing mate- rials it may be said that nitrates and soluble phosphates should be api)lied only a short time before they are required by the plant. Potash salts, ammonium sulphate, organic nitrogenous matter, and insoluble phosphates, being less like- ly to be converted into less available forms or leached out of the soil, may be safely applied weeks or even months before they are needed. In general farm practice the best results are likely to be obtained in the use of fertilizers by applying them systematically, i.e. by adopting a combined system of rotation and manuring which is adapted to the given conditions of crop, climate, and season, and which provides for the utiliza- tion to the best advantage of the home and local supplies of manures. The preparation and use of commercial fer- tilizers on an extensive scale practically dates from the announcement of Liebig's theory of plant nutrition in 1840 and the publication about the same time of the results of Lawes's experi- ment on the preparation and use of superphos- phates as a fertilizer. Since that date the in- dustry has grown to enonnous proportions. It is estimated that over $50,000,000 worth of ferti- lizers are annually consumed in the United States alone. This large and rapidly growing industry is under strict legal supervision for the pre- vention of fraud. Every State in which com- mercial fertilizers are used to any great extent has provided for fertilizer inspection. The composition of the more important mate- rials used in the preparation of fertilizers is shown in the table on the preceding page. Bibliography. Semjjers, Manures — How to Make and How to Use Them (Philadelphia, 1893); Aikman, Maiuire» and Manuring (Edin- burgh and London, 1894) ; Roberts, The Fertility of the Land (New York, 1897) ; Storer, Arp-icul- ture (New York, 1897); Voorhees, Fertilizers (New York, 1898) ; Brooks, Agriculture, vol. ii. (Springfield, Mass., I90I); United States De- partment of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletins 21, 44. See Green JI.^nuring; Bone Fertilizers; Guano. MANUSCRIPT (Lat. manu script urn, written by hand). A term applied to anything written by hand, on either hard or soft and flexible sub- stances. The hard substances are principally stones, metals, bone, and wood, on which the writing is in the nature of engraving; the soft or flexible sulistances are especially papyrus, wax. parchment and other skins, textiles, and paper, while terra-cotta or clay partakes of both classes. The instruments used were the wedge, stylus, brush, and graver for the hard, and the reed, quill, stylus, and metal pen for the soft substances. The stone chisel was used in rock-writings. In the matter of inks, black was always the ordi- nary color, and red was used at an early date (e.g. in Egypt) for decorative purposes; other MANUSCRIPTS. colors had a special meaning, as purple was the Imperial color of the Byzantine and Carloviu- gian emperors, and yellow the Imperial color in China. For the history of the methods of pro- duction and preservation of various kinds of manuscripts, see Paleography; Book; Libra- RiE.s; Codex; Papyrls; Cuneiform In.scrip- TIO.XS. MANUSCRIPTS, Illumination of. The art of embellishing manuscripts with miniatures and ornaments, an art of the most remote antiquity. The term miniature, so often used indiscriminate- ly to designate such ornanu'ntation, as well as minute painting on ivory or other material, is derived from minium (cinnabar, red lead), whence mi?iiarc, to write or design in red. The Egj'ptian papyri of the ritualistic class, as old as the Eighteenth Dynasty, esi)ecially the Book of the Dead, are ornamented with vignettes or miniatures, attached to the chapters, either de- signed in black outlines, or painted in primary colors in tempera. Except these papyri, no other manuscripts of antiquity were, strictly speaking, illuminated; such Greek and Roman ones of the first century as have reached the present day be- ing written only. Pliny, indeed, mentions from Varro that authors had their portraits painted on their works, and mentions a biographical work with numerous portraits introduced, but all svich have disappeared in the wreck of ages, the oldest illuminated manuscripts which have survived dating from the fourth century. Saint Jerome complains of the abuse of the practice, as shown by filling up books with capital letters of preposterous size. The art of illuminating manu- scripts with gold and silver letters is supposed to have been derived from Egypt, but it is re- markable that no papyrus has any gold or silver introduced into it. The artists who painted in gold, called chrysographi, are mentioned as early as the second century. There were, in fact, from the beginning two distinct classes of illuminated manuscripts: (1) those with decorative letters and (2) those with figured compositions. These were often crossed, and figures painted within and around the letters. The purely figured il- lustrations, similar to the larger compositions in mosaic and fresco, originated in early Byzan- tine art, and the decorative letter style was a specialty of the northern races, especially Irish and Saxon. One of the oldest manuscripts of this style is the Codex Argenteus of Ulpbilas (e.50O A.D. ), and the charter of King Edgar (a.d. 966) shows the use of these letters. The principal late Roman illustrated manuscripts are the two Ver- gils of the Vatican, the Iliad of the Ambrosian (Milan), and the Roman Philocalian Calendar at Vienna, all belonging to the fourth century or the early part of the fifth, and illustrating the last phase of the secular school. There exist also a few copies of originals of this date or earlier, such as the Terence plays at the Vatican and Biblioth&ciue Nationale and the Calendar of Ara- Ins at Boulogne. Of Greek classic descent are the exquisite pictures in the Viennese manuscript of the medical writings of Dioscorides, not exe- cuted till A.D. 505. Fifth and Sixth Centuries. It was during the fifth and sixth centuries that illuminating became an important branch of Christian art. to remain so until the sixteenth century. Manu- scripts of the Old Testament, either as a whole or in separate books, and Gospel manuscripts