182 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



"Husbandry of the Netherlands." It is as fol- 

 lows: — 



Wheat — Dung or compost 10^ tons. 



Rye— Farm-yard dung 10^ tons. 



Oats — Ditto lOi tons. 



Flax— 866 rape-cakes, dissolved in 2,480 gallons of 



urine. 

 Rape-seed — 580 rape-cakes, dissolved in 3,200 



gallons of urine. 

 Beans — 14 cart-loads of liquid manure, and 14 



loads of stable dung, equal together to 21 



tons. 

 Potatoes — 14 loads of liquid manure, and 14 loads 



of stable dung. 

 The mode in which this semi-fluid manure is 

 applied in Flanders was thus described by Mr. 

 Rham : it includes in few lines several notices of 

 good fanning principles : — ■ 



'• The stubble is well harrowed soon after harvest, 

 in order to pull up the weeds and expose their roots 

 to the sun. In the beginning of October from 10 

 to 15 tons per acre of good rotten dung are spread 

 evenly over the land, and immediately i)loughed-in 

 6 inches deep : the land is ploughed in stetches or 

 beds, varying from to 1 2 feet wide, according to 

 the nature of the soil ; the heavier soils are laid in 

 the smallest stetches : liquid manure at the rate of 

 10 hogsheads per acre is then poured into the in- 

 tervals between the stitches, by means of a water- 

 cart, which delivers it regularly, the horse walking 

 in the interval. The harrows are now drawn across 

 the stetches. This brings a°part of the fine soil 

 into the intervals, and prevents the too rapid eva- 

 poration of the liquid manure. Six pecks of rye or 

 of wheat, or two bushels of winter barley, are now 

 sown evenly over the land. The manured soil in 

 the intervals is first stirred by the plough going 

 once up and down, as is done between rows of 

 turnips in the Northumberland system, throwing 

 the loose earth in a ridge in the middle. Men 

 follow with shovels, and throw this earth over the 

 seed, as is done with potatoes in lazy-beds in 

 Ireland, and completely cover it. A roller is then 

 passed over, if required ; or, in very loose soils, 

 men tread in the seed regularly with their feet, as 

 the gardeners do. The small extent of the farms 

 allows of this garden culture, which in large occu- 

 pations would l)e impracticable : but the principle 

 is the same, whether executed by manual labour or 

 machinery." 



The addition of certain organic matters to the 

 soil in this way, rather than adding those solid 

 fertilizers without the water with which they are 

 mixed in liquid manure, has the advantage of dif- 

 fusing those matters more completely through the 

 soil; and there is no doubt that by the fermentation 

 of these nitrogenous substances in water, a much 

 more considerable proportion of ammonia is pro- 



duced than when the same matters are allowed to 

 decompose with a less considerable proportion of 

 water. These conclusions are entirely in accord- 

 ance with the observations of Mr. Mechi, on the 

 clay soils of Tiptree Hall. He some time since fur- 

 nished me with the following digest of the quantity 

 of liquid manure per acre, pumped by means of a 

 steam-engine, on to his farm, at a cost of S^d. to 

 4d. per 1,000 gallons, in the season 1852-53 : it is 

 as follows : — 



Wheat — 20,000 gallons, after roots drawn oflf. 



None after clover, or it would be too strong. 

 Barley — 15,000 gallons, after cabbage drawn off. 

 Oats — 15,000 gallons, alter mangel. 

 Grasses— 60,000 to 100,000 gallons at various 



dressings. 

 Roots cannot have too much, say 60,000 to 100,000 



gallons per acre. 



" The result" (he adds) " is unmistakeable in its 

 profitable results in the case of roots, rye grass, 

 clovers, &c., increasing the crops from 50 to 150 

 per cent., and preventing failures from wireworm, 

 drought, &c. Its effects are see7i in the subsequent 

 cereal crops. By liquefied manure, I mean the 

 solid and liquid excrements of animals and human 

 beings fluidized by admixture with large quantities 

 of water : guano added to it improves its effects." 



We may conclude, then, from the concurring 

 testimony of the cultivators of soils, widely differ- 

 ent as regards the climate in which they are placed, 

 that the use of sewage or other liquid manure is 

 highly beneficial to the grasses, not only from the 

 water applied on it, but from the foreign matters 

 which the liquid contains ; but that the application 

 of liquid manure to land to be devoted to the 

 growth of cereals, is chiefly valuable for the solid 

 matter it conveys to the soil. 



It is rather a curious and instructive retrospect 

 to follow the slow and irregular introduction of 

 irrigation of any kind. It has had to encounter 

 difficulties in many ways ; the outlay necessary to 

 prepare the land, the vested right to the water of 

 streams, the objections raised on sanitary grounds, 

 have all stood in the way of irrigation ; and I am 

 not sure but that the remarks of Mr. R. Russell, 

 on the conservative spirit displayed by the Roman 

 agriculturists, far too often applies to those of other 

 and happier lands. It is certainly (as he observes) 

 remarkable how little they profited by the lessons 

 which the agriculture of the nations they subdued 

 might have taught them ; and I suspect there is 

 not a little truth in Jethro Tull's remark, that they 

 were so well i)leased with the fable of their art of 

 tillage being the invention of Ceres, that they never 

 attempted to improve it, lest they should derogate 

 from the divinity of the goddess in supposing her 

 invention imperfect. 



