Dr Davy on *' Sheep- Manured 51 



ing which there cannot be a doubt. I allude to sheep's dung 

 in a dry state, dried merely by exposure to the sun and wind, 

 and, therefore, retaining all, or almost all, its original virtues. 

 This manure has been imported into Nevis in casks, by an 

 enterprising and intelligent merchant, a planter of that island, 

 who is now applying it to his cane-fields. From him I have 

 received a portion of it, sufficient for examination. I shall re- 

 strict myself at present to a very brief mention of it, and of 

 the results obtained. 



It is of a dark greenish-brown colour, a congeries of minute 

 fibres and scales or laminae. To water it yields slowly a 

 solution, containing, besides a'greenish-brown colouring mat- 

 ter, a little sesqui-carbonate of potash, carbonate of ammonia, 

 and a trace of muriate of ammonia ; acted on by dilute mu- 

 riatic acid, a solution is formed containing a large proportion 

 of phosphate of lime, and some lime and magnesia, which 

 probably exist in the manure in the state of carbonates. The 

 part resisting the action of water and acids, consists princi- 

 pally of vegetable fibre and silicious matter, and is not in- 

 considerable. 



This composition, if I recollect rightly, agrees very nearly 

 with that of the dung of our English Down-fed sheep, and is 

 certainly such as is in accordance with high fertilizing powers. 

 The article, I am informed, was imported from the Spanish 

 Main, but from what part exactly of the American continent 

 I have not learned, nor its price, nor in what quantities it can 

 be procured. 



Could it be had in large quantities, and at a moderate price, 

 from a matter of curiosity — for it is hardly more at present 

 in relation to British Agriculture — it might become one of 

 some importance, especially as in its dry pulverulent state, 

 it is so well fitted for drill husbandry, " to be drilled in with 

 the seed," a plan which a writer in a late number of an agri- 

 cultural journal* considers peculiarly advantageous, and, as 

 it appears to me, very justly so. 



BA*feA!)<)lJ9, Ottcher 2, 1846. 



* Mr Henry Liddell. See «' The Farmer's Herald'' for August 1846, yi. 90. 



