323 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



stance has a peculiar aptitude to fix ammonia as it 

 arises from animal matters. It may be a difficult affair 

 to arrest and fix volatile substances : the best known 

 way is here pointed out, which must serve till a better 

 is found. 



During the winter season of making- dung, from the 

 beginningr of October to the middle of April, the con- 

 tents of the yards are carried at any time of convenience 

 to heaps in the fields, placed as before on sites of ex- 

 tent to suit the quantity of dung that may be required. 

 The heap is formed with sloping ends, over which the 

 loaded carts pass and deposit their contents, which are 

 regularly spread over the surface by a person appointed 

 to superintend the erection of the heaps. During frosts 

 and snows the heap'is favourably constructed ; in damp 

 weather it will be necessary to lay frequent coverings 

 of dry straw over the heap, which will be moistened 

 and rotted by the prepared substances from the yards. 

 The heap is trampled into firmness — that excludes air 

 and prevents fermentation, which is deferred to a later 

 period of time. The last addition to the heap is done 

 in the middle of April, when the substances must be 

 properly moistened, as the dry season of sun and wind 

 does not afibrd the same ingredients of decomposition 

 as are found in the winter months. The last covering 

 of the heap must be in moist substances thoroughly 

 impregnated to saturation. 



Potatoes, beet root, and turnips are the green crop 

 plants of Britain, and are cultivated in the order in 

 which they are now named. Ten or fourteen days be- 

 fore the dung is required, the manure heap is turned 

 over with foi-ks, when the mass of dung is moved in 

 single lumps, placed in a new position, and laid loosely 

 together, the outside of the heap thrown into the inside, 

 dry and wet substances shaken into a mixture, and a 

 square heap formed in a shape of neatness and com- 

 pact appearance. A very active fermentation will im- 

 mediately ensue from the free admission of air and 

 moisture ; and the movement of the heap will provoke 

 the changes and combinations that arise from dif- 

 ferent bodies in contact. The process will have reached 

 the height by the time the dung is carried to the drills, 

 and may bo on the wane ; and then the volatile matters 

 may enter more freely into the soil for future benefit. 

 In this mode, damp exhalations will arise from the 

 dung in the drills, and exert a very beneficial efiect on 

 the germination of plants. It is necessary that every 

 possible dispatch be used in depositing and spreading 

 the dung in the drills, reversing the ridglets over the 

 dung, and in sowing the turnip seeds among the fresh 

 combinations that are provoked by the movements and 

 position of the dung and the soil. The combined ar- 

 rangement of economical dispatch in turnip husbandry 

 lias been long well known and most fully practised. 



An equal success has attended the two modes now 

 described of preparing heaps of farm-yard dung as a 

 manure for green crops; and it may not be easy to de- 

 cide the superior benefits, if any, from dung in which 

 the changes are going on, or in that where they are 

 completed. In the heaps of light treading, the changes 

 may be understood to be very far advanced, if not 



wholly completed; in many or in most cases the putre- 

 faction is quietly introduced by reason oi no more 

 caloric being evolved to create combinations. The 

 mass sinks into a quiescent condition, moist and warm, 

 and the materials are easily managed in the application 

 to the drills. The trampled condition of manure heaps 

 that are turned over a short time before application 

 indicates the mass at the time of use to be in the 

 first stage of fermentation, vinous or acetous, and the 

 process to be in full vigour when the dung is placed in 

 the drills, with every action in force. Our own opinion 

 prefers the last preparation of farm-yard dung, in 

 heaps trod over during winter in the process of forma- 

 tion, and turned with forks just before being used, after a 

 most extensive and varied experience in turnip farming 

 of thirty-five years, of which one-third were spent in the 

 celebrated counties of Roxburgh and Northumberland, 

 partly in the midland and southern counties of England, 

 in the west of Scotland, and in South Wales. These 

 localities comprehend much variation of soil and cli- 

 mate, that is very necessary to establish a settled fact. 

 It must be acknowledged that in the case of the 

 gi'eatest success achieved with freshly-fermented dung, 

 the soil and season were very favourable for Swedish 

 turnips ; so that the single instance cannot be adduced 

 as confirming any superiority beyond the common ob- 

 servation. A gi'eater bulk is obtained by the fresh 

 preparation, as the materials are not reduced as by the 

 light treading and a larger fermentation ; and this larger 

 bulk will form a recommendation, and more especially 

 when the efticaey proves to be equal, if not superior. 



Any difiference of exj^ense may not be worth a figure 

 between the two modes of preparation ; and the diffe- 

 rence may be none in any respect, if all the dung of 

 the yards could be placed in heaps of light treading in 

 March or April, so that the fermentation has not 

 ceased when the dung is applied to use. But this in- 

 convenience is -beyond admission in any case of exten- 

 sive farming. In heaps made at that time, the fer- 

 mentation would not be extinguished at the time of 

 using the dung, and a near similarity would exist be- 

 tween the two modes of preparation. 



Observation and experience constitute the most cer- 

 tain grounds of progress in every pi-actical art; and 

 the adoption arising from a majority of similar results 

 forms the experience of it ; which, being systematized, 

 constitutes its theory. Agriculture is the science of cir- 

 cumstances and modifications, almost beyond any other 

 human pei'formance ; the difference of soils and the 

 variations of climate render necessary a very wide al- 

 lowance for different effects under different circum- 

 stances, and make it impossible in many cases to lay 

 down a rule for certain application. But there are al- 

 ways found some rules which never fail under any cir- 

 cumstances, and which produce a certain effect without 

 any, or with very small, modifications. Of this number 

 are the two modes now detailed of preparing farm-yard 

 dung, of which the materials are eflicacious in any soil 

 and climate in Britain. The value admits no curtail- 

 ment. 



It frequently happens, in extensive turnip farming, 



