380 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



in the estimate of Dr. Anderson, he offers as a mere 

 approximate estimate, this of course varying in 

 richness with the food consumed by the stock, and 

 the care bestowed by its owner. As, in fact, the 

 malcers of artificial manures widely differ in their 

 skill and carefulness, so the farmers, who are 

 makers of ordinary manure, as strangely differ in 

 their mode of preparing the dung of the farm-yard. 

 It is not every young farmer, indeed, who well con- 

 siders the comparative value of the dung produced 

 by the consumption of different kinds of food, and 

 yet I need hardly enlarge upon the deep importance 

 of the inquiry. Mr. Lawes has recently given an 

 estimate of this kind {Johnsoii and Shaw's Farmers' 

 Almanac for 1861, p. 45.) : he remarks — 



" The valuation of the manure resulting from 

 the consumption of different foods is founded upon 

 estimates of their composition, and upon a know- 

 lege, experimentally acquired, of the probable 

 average amount of those constituents of the food 

 valuable for manure, which will be obtained in the 

 solid and liquid excrements of the animals. The 

 following table, founded on these data, gives the 

 estimated value of the manure obtained from the 

 consumption of 1 ton of different articles of food, 

 each supposed to be of good quality of its kind : — 



Although the estimate of Dr. Anderson raises 

 the aggregate value of the artificial manures now 

 annually employed in this country to £4,205,000, 

 yet if we take the cultivated lands of our islands to 

 amount to 2J,000,G00 acres, this gives an average 

 yearly outlay of only about 3s. 6d. per acre. And 

 yet we are told on all hands that it is not now pos- 

 sible to farm with the maximum advantage, with- 

 out an annual outlay of about 20s. per acre for ar- 

 tificial dressings. In a recent report by Mr. A. 

 Simpson, of Seawig, on high farming combined 

 with profit, an essay to which the Highland So- 

 ciety of Scotland awarded their gold medal, he ad- 

 vises a considerably greater outlay. After giving 



a variety of details relating to his own farming, he 

 thus sums up his remarks on the use of manures 

 {Tratis. High. Soc, I860, p. 195) : 



" Take the case of a farm of three hundred 

 acres on the four-shifts system ; say 75 acres 

 of grass cut for hay, 75 oats, 38 potatoes, 37 

 turnips, mangolds, cabbages, and carrots, 75 

 wheat; I would apply to the grass in March 



2 cwt. of Peruvian guano per acre, and in 

 April, or early in May, when showers are falling, 

 1 cwt. nitrate of soda; an early and heavy cut of 

 grass for home consumption by horses and soiling 

 cattle, and for making into hay, would thus be ob- 

 tained. Thus treated, I would calculate on a good 

 afterm.ath, to be either sold or used in the yards, 

 followed by a rich sward for sheep up to Christmas. 

 It would then plough down for oats, with the pros- 

 pect of a heavy crop, without any addition of ma- 

 nure. I would manure the potato and turnip 

 breaks well, so as to have a full produce from them, 

 and the land ready without further manuring, for 

 the autumn wheat crops, storing the turnips, &c., 

 early in November. I believe that if a moderate 

 portion of oil cake, or other feeding stuff", is used 

 along with the turnip and mangold in feeding cat- 

 tle, the oat straw may be consumed, and the wheat 

 straw trodden into manure, that thus sufficient 

 "muck" (the farmer's"surest friend, after all) will 

 have been produced at home, to give 20 loads per 

 acre to all the green crop breaks. I would give 

 (adds Mr. Simpson) the potatoes at planting 2 cwt. 

 of superphosphate and 1 cwt. of Peruvian guano 

 per acre, and top-dress them with 2 cwt. of Peruvian 

 guano at the first hoeing. This practice I have 

 found to give the largest produce. To the turnips, 

 &c., I would give 2 cwt. of superphosphate and 



3 cwt. of Peruvian guano per acre at sowing, add- 

 ing to the mangolds 5 cwt. of common salt." We 

 would, adopting the practice thus suggested, have 

 a total use of purchased manure to the extent of — 



£ s. d. 



375 cv/t. of Peruvian guano at 12s. . . 225 



75 „ nitrate of soda „18s. .. 67 10 



150 „ superphosphate „ 7s... 52 10 



30 „ salt ,, Is. . . 1 10 



346 10 



or a little more than 23s. per acre. " This," con- 

 cludes Mr. Simpson, " though it may appear a 

 high, would under the circumstances suggested 

 be, I believe, a wise, safe, and profitable rate of 

 expenditure." 



Three of the great manure works on the Thames 

 side have recently been described by the editor of 

 the Ar/ricultural Gazette (vol. for I860, p. 486), 

 viz., the establishments of the London Manure 

 Company, at Plough Wharf, below Greenwich ; 

 of Mr, Lawes, at Deptford and Barking; and of 

 the Patent Nitrophosphate or Blood Manure Com- 

 pany, by the Victoria Docks. These three great 

 manufactories, as the editor remarks, may be 

 fairly placed at the head of any list of the Thames 

 side manure works. In describing the manufac- 

 ture of superphosphate of lime at these establish- 

 ments, after alluding to the preparation of the 

 sulphuric acid at these places, the editor continues : 



