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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE 



hearers without a reference to the character or properties of 

 the soil to which they were applied. On the whole, the proper 

 system of manuring required a great deal of rudimentary 

 knowledge, which could not be treated of in a single lecture. 

 He would therefore rather offer a few remarks on the compa- 

 rative advantages of natural and artificial manure ; and each 

 of these possessed peculiarities of their own, which rendered 

 them perfectly well adapted to special purposes. As would 

 be seen on reference to the diagrams, one peculiarity of farm- 

 yard manure was its extreme complexity of character. [The 

 diagram referred to contained the analysis of the component 

 parts of fresh and rotten manure.] It contained both organic 

 and inorganic food, and was applicable to a variety of 

 crops, such as corn, root crops, and grass land; and this, 

 no doubt, was the reason why farm-yard manure was enti- 

 tled to the name of universal manure. It contained every- 

 thing required by our cultivated crops. But he did not 

 say that it should always be used indiscriminately. Another 

 peculiarity of farm-yard manure was that it exercised 

 beneficial effect on plants, not only .supplying direct food to 

 them, but producing a highly beneficial mechanical effect on 

 the soil, especially on stiff' claj' laud. He was a strong ad- 

 vocate for long dung being applied as soon as possible. In 

 the yard manure one great peculiarity was the large amount 

 of water — in fact, this amounted generally to 66 per cent., 

 and in rotten it amounted to three-fourths of the whole 

 bulk ; so that for every ton of active manuring matter, the 

 farmer has to cart three tons of useless materials, even sup- 

 posing that the remaining ton is composed of nothing else 

 but valuable fertilizing constituents. This would explain 

 why it was that artificial manures were especially adapted 

 for hilly districts and for fields removed a considerable dis- 

 tance from the farm-yard. He did not think that farmers 

 always took a sufKcient account of the wear and tear of 

 horses and men in the transit and application of that ma- 

 nure. If the subject were carefully considered, the farmer 

 would think twice befoie he carted a heavy load of farm- 

 yard manure some eight or nine iniles from a town, and 

 afterwards applied it to a remote field on the farm ; and he 

 would also hesitate before producing farm-yard manure at 

 any expense. Under seme circumstances, which every 

 farmer ought to know best for himself, feeding cattle 

 did not pay at all ; farmers sometimes made up their minds 

 to feed at a loss, calculating on something for the manure. 

 But it was a very delicate question whether this was the 

 best way of producing manure, or whether it was not better 

 to use the ordinarily-made manure, and apply it in connec- 

 tion with artificial or special manure, the latter term show- 

 ing that it was adapted for special purposes. If a farm was 

 not in good order, it ought to be brought round by general 

 manure, such as farm-yard manure ; but when it was in 

 better condition, to make it go as far as possible, special 

 manure must be resorted to. A peculiarity in artificial ma- 

 nures was that they supplied special fertilizing ingredients 

 to the exclusion of some others which were abundant in 

 farm-yard manure. For instance : In the best Peruvian 

 guano there was a high per-centage of ammonia, with about 

 '20 or 25 per cent, of phosphate of lime ; and that guano was 

 applied forgetting an additional crop of corn. Some other 

 artificial mannres-bonc-dust, for instance— were valuable 

 on account of their containing phosphate of lime, which was 

 favourable to the production of roots, nothing tending to 

 the rapid development of bulb so much as that. He" did 

 not mean that phosphates were of no use to corn crops 

 In some soils they produced a marked effect, and 

 he had that morning recommended a gentleman to 

 use superphosphate by way of a trial, to keep up his wheat. 

 There had been a good deal of talk about a deficiency of 

 silica in soils, which prevented corn from standing up. It was 

 remarkable that soils peculiarly liable to corn lying down gene- 

 rally contained a high per-centage of silica. From observa- 

 tions that had been made on the subject, he was inclined to 

 think that what had been said about silica must be regarded 

 more as a theory rather than a resting on well-ascertained facts. 

 It had not yet been ascertained how it was that some crops 

 were stronger than others ; and until that was found out, it was 

 of no use reasoning upon the matter. Corn become laid down 

 from a variety of reasons. If the land contained a supply of all 

 the elements necessary for the growth of the plant, a dressing 

 of guano produced a coarse wheat, which often became laid 

 down. When wheat became laid down it arose from something 



in the soil being in too large proportion. Some people had a 

 curious way of estimating the skill of the farmer by the amount 

 of the manure which he put on his laud. Some men were 

 content with eight tons of farm-yard manure, while others used 

 as much as twenty tons to the acre. The farmer, however, 

 who tried the larger dose did not often repeat the experiment, 

 for he became convinced that, in farming, what was good in one 

 instance was not good in aucti.er. The great advantage of 

 artificial manures was that they contained special fertilizing 

 ingredients to the exclusion of other substances, and hence its 

 adaptation to special circumstances. How were these special 

 circumstances to be ascertained ? He had no doubt in his own 

 mind that bone dust or superphosphate mixed with farm-yard 

 manure would be of great advantage, as it would supply the 

 element which was very much deficient infarm-yardmauure, es- 

 pecially where the manure was produced by young and lean 

 stock, which absorbed all the phosphate of the food ; in the 

 manure from fattening animals there was a large proportion of 

 this substance, and hence its great value. Phosphates gene- 

 rally speaking- were more suitable for root crops, but it was im- 

 possible to lay down general rules ; the farmer himself ought 

 to be the best judge, whether in order to obtain a good crop 

 anything else was required. Turnips did not live alone upon 

 phosphate; they required a variety of other substances- 

 lime, soda, potash, and other fertilizing matters. It depended 

 upon the farmer to find this out, and no one else. There was 

 a good deal of land in this part of the country which required 

 nothing more, in order to obtain good root crops, than bone 

 in an efficient state of preparation. The learned professor 

 then went on to observe upon the constituent parts of guano 

 and superphosphate, and their application to particular soils 

 end for particular crops. [The substance of this part of his 

 lecture will be found in our report of the Wenlock Farmers' 

 Club]. He illustrated the immense importance of examining 

 the manure we buy, by referring to the following table, which 

 proved that some superphosphate contained four times as 

 much valuable feitilizing matters as others : 



Mr. George Davies, as a farmer, was much obliged for 

 the able and practical lecture which they had just heard. He 

 wished to know if the learned professor could tell him how red 

 clover could be retained ou light soils from February until 

 June. He had some years ago conversed with Pr. Pepper on 

 this subject, and was ilow in communication with Mr. Nesbit, 

 but the latter gentleman had not answered the question he 

 now put. 



