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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



aud getting more so, as tlio natives depend entirely 

 upon them for their support. Kangaroo-tail soup is 

 not bad; and the popular coloni.il dish called a 

 " steamer," which it furnishes, is well known. The 

 flesh of the wombat, the bandicoot, and even of the 

 opossum, may do for the bushman. The flesh of the 

 emu is passably good ; but this bird, the kangaroo, and 

 the other native animals, are becoming rare as settlement 

 advances, a war of extermination seeming to have been 

 declared against them. 



It is satisfactory to find that a zoological society has 



been formed at Melbourne, which has received from the 

 Government a valuable tract of land, and a grant of 

 £3,000, for the introduction of new animals. 



Besides the broad question of interest and profit to 

 be gained by individuals in this movement, we heartily 

 concur in the desire " to see the good things of the 

 eai'th spread as rapidly as possible over every portion 

 of its surface, and to find every reasonable effort made 

 to multiply, as far as can be, the legitimate enjoyments 

 of mankind." 



FARMYARD DUNG. 



Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, Norfolk, states the 

 fact, from his own experience, that the quality of 

 farmyard dung is improved by an exposure of 

 months on the surface of the ground ; and that 

 the crops are better from dung that has been 

 exposed, than on lands in which the dung has 

 been covered in the usual moist and half-rotted 

 condition. This observation is not quite new, 

 though but little known ; and v/hen mentioned, it 

 has been completely smothered by the overwhelm- 

 ing weight of the established dogma on the use of 

 farmyard dung. My own experience is able to 

 confirm the statement of Mr. Hudson, during a 

 long and very extensive practice in using farm 

 dung on clay fallows, for wheat. During two 

 years, the heap of dung, of winter preparation, 

 was not sufficient to manure the field, and a quan- 

 tity was supplied from the stable door, consisting 

 in dry straws and warm faeces of the horse, with 

 some stems of vetches that were used as soiling 

 food. The application was truly rough dung, and 

 lay on the land, mostly uncovered by the plough, 

 from August to October, when the seed-furrow 

 failed to cover the dung that was somewhat reduced 

 from the condition when applied. Tlie harrows 

 pulled it into smaller fragments, which lay on the 

 surface during winter, bleached by the rains, washed 

 by the snows, dried by the sun and winds of March 

 and April, when the grass seeds were sown, of 

 which the tilth tore into shreds the weather-beaten 

 dung of straws and excrements, and pressed the 

 remnants into the ground by a heavy rolling. A 

 most choice bed was formed for the grass seeds, in 

 which they throve most vigorously, being a very 

 finely comminuted mixture of pulverized alluvial 

 earth with the minute shreds of the dung. On 

 these grounds, the wheat crop was superior to the 

 other parts of the field, being earlier in growth 

 from the first vegetation of the Spring, more dark- 

 green in the colour of the leaves spreading closely 

 over the ground, more numerous and stronger in 

 the stems, and the Blocks of ripe crop in a greater 



number at harvest. The superiority was most 

 evident, during the season, from a distant entry 

 into the field. The succession of two years estab- 

 Ushes a fact under similar circumstances, and 

 confirms Mr. Hudson's statement. 



A very extensive experience of turnip farming 

 in the celebrated counties of Roxburgh and North- 

 umberland, affording many observations, led me to 

 suppose that farmyard dung was unnecessarily 

 fermented in heaps, and that the fresh condition 

 was superior, at least equal in effect. In four 

 cases, the superiority was most evident, under my 

 own inspection and management — on the clayey 

 loams of Leicestershire, on the iron sandy soils of 

 Surrey, and on the wet poachy earths of Brecon- 

 shire, in South "Wales, which recumb upon, and 

 are derived from, the upper horizontal layer of the 

 old red sandstone. These localities afforded a 

 sufficient variation of soil and climate to estabhsh a 

 fact, which consisted in fresh dung being lifted 

 from the door of the cowshed, laid in drills in the 

 usual quantity, and producing a very superior crop 

 of turnips that was very evident and most marked 

 to any observation. This result confirms Mr. 

 Mechi's observation, that " the days of dungheaps 

 are numbered." I have, for many years, recom- 

 mended that all straws used for litter be cut into 

 short lengths by the steam jiower of the thrashing 

 machinery, in order to be conveniently covered in 

 the drills j and all farmyard dung be applied in the 

 fresh condition of straws and fa;ces, mixed and 

 moderately saturated with liquid excrements. 



Mr. Hudson's observation is very much strength- 

 ened by the bean farming of East Lothian, the 

 crack county of Scotland. The land is partially 

 wrought in February and March, drills are opened 

 as for green crops, rough but well moistened farm- 

 yard dung is spread along the intervals, the beans 

 are sown, and the drills are reversed. During 

 these operations, the weather, being unsteady at 

 that early season, often interrupts the progress, 

 and leaves the farmyard dung lying in heaps, and 



