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XHE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



MANURES AND CHEMISTRY. 



The certainty has been discovered that farmyard dung 

 in the rough condition of freshly voided fteces and un- 

 reduced straws lifted from tlie cjittle yards in the morn- 

 ing carryings from the stable and the cowshed, forms 

 the best manure for wheat, and affer it has been ex- 

 posed for weeks and months on the surface of the ground. 

 This fact was established by our very extensive practice 

 on wheat fallows, when the heap of fermented dung 

 having failed to complete the manuring of a field in the 

 end of August, the necessary quantity was supplied from 

 the cowshed and stable doors, and was spread over the 

 surface in the condition of dry straws and fresh excre- 

 tions. The ploughing failed to cover the rough 

 materials, even after being placed in the furrows by the 

 handfork that followed the plough for that purpose. 

 The land and dung formed a most unsightly condition 

 over the harvest ; and a rebuke was administered by 

 my superior in office for exhibiting such a specimen of 

 manuring cultivated lands. 



The seed furrow was done in October, by which time 

 the raius, sua, and winds, and atmospheric influence in 

 contact with the ground had commenced a decomposition 

 and a sinking of the materials. After the ploughing, 

 the greater part still remained on the surface, showing a 

 wetted state and a partial decomposition. The seed 

 was sown in broadcast on the still very unsightly con- 

 dition of the ground ; the harrows tore in pieces and 

 scattered the rough materials, which lay during winter 

 over the surface as a not very uneven top-dressing. On 

 this portion of the field the autumn braird of wheat was 

 much more vigorous than the other parts that received 

 the usual quantity of fermented dung that was cool and 

 soapy. The second growth in the spring matted close 

 and thick, a sure sign of prosperity. The colour was a 

 darker green, which was maintained throughout the 

 summer, along with even a distantly-visible heavier crop, 

 in stronger and taller culms, and more plump and larger 

 ears of grain, of a more yellow hue. The harvest 

 showed a thicknr stand of shocks, that was very visible 

 to any observation, it bearing a pre-eminence in the 

 quantity and quality of the grain. This result stopped 

 all animadversions, but left no wish for adoption. 



Farmyard dung in a fresh condition from the cattle 

 yards is laid on drilled grounds for beans, the ridglets 

 being split by the plough after the beans are sown over 

 the dung. In the county of East Lothian, in the South 

 of Scotland, where bean husbandry is the most perfect, 

 the stubble land is prepared by grubbing and harrowing, 

 so soon as the opening weather will permit in February 

 and March, and the dung is applied in the condition of 

 wetted straws and fresh excretions. At that period of 

 the year, and in the high bean latitudes of that county, 

 storms will occur of snows, frosts, and rains, which stop 

 the proceedings, and leave the land and dung exposed 

 to the weather. Duiing these times the dung has lain 



in heaps in the drills, and even spread along the in- 

 tervals, for many days, and even for weeks, where it 

 has been soaked by the snows, congealed by the frosts, 

 bleached by the rains, dried by the winds, and scorched 

 by the sun^, before being covered in the drills, and then 

 the crop of beans fully equalled the other grounds that 

 were managed in the usual way. In some cases a 

 superiority was thought to be visible, and the result has 

 occurred sufficiently often to establish a fact from a 

 majority of similar results, and has been most fully 

 authenticated. 



My own practice in turnip farming showed, iu three 

 cases of different soils and climates, that freshly voided 

 fseces from the cowshed door fully equalled, if they did not 

 exceed, the usual quantity of fermented dung in raising 

 a crop of turnips. The comparison was most fair and 

 decisive. 



Bones have been used during my own practice, fresh 

 ground by the miU in the forenoon, and carried to the 

 field and immediately sown. The size was half-inch, 

 with dust mixed that was made by the grinding. I have 

 had bones fermented with urine, and leys, and limes, with 

 earths, and have used the superphosphate, and found 

 the fresh condition the most preferable, and with least 

 trouble, and with the same quantity of each preparation. 



On pared and burnt lands the ashes have been carried 

 from the surface where produced, and on that ground the 

 crop of turnips and rape was equal to the land on which 

 the ashes were burned and spread ; and ashes have been 

 spread on a pared surface on which no burning had 

 been done, when the effects were most trifling. These 

 results were seen during my own practice, and show 

 that the benefit from paring and burning arises from the 

 heat of the flames raising the temperature of the ground. 

 The ashes being produced by fire, may confer a similar 

 benefit in a small degree. 



Lime is a warm body that has been incinerated by 

 fire, and raises the temperature of the ground. Clay is 

 a very bad conductor of caloric, and receives little or no 

 benefit from lime. Sand being a metallic body, receives 

 and radiates the heat very quickly, without retaining the 

 caloric for future benefit, while mixed soils of animal 

 and vegetable matters that have once existed in an or- 

 ganized condition receive caloric in a proper ratio, and 

 retain it for future use. This result is most obvious 

 from every application of lime on clays, sands, and on 

 mixed soils. 



Mr. Mechi has said that the days of dung heaps are 

 numbered, in which I agree ; and Mr. Hudson, of 

 Castle Acre, in Norfolk, has made the same statement 

 I now write, on farmyard dung for wheat. However 

 much these statements may clash with the chemistry of 

 Kennington or Hanover-squarfe, such facts are stubborn 

 things. J. D. 



Isi Si'pf., 1858. 



