Cultivation of Early Potatoes. Ill 



In the way of " sprouting." How can he sprout seed for thirty 

 or forty acres ? We must confess that there is a difficulty, yet 

 with a little contrivance, by making use of the cattle-sheds and 

 outbuildings which we may suppose such an occupier to possess, 

 he might sprout sufficient for several acres, and when he found 

 the advantage of so doing he might add to his contrivances. 



But there are hundreds of small cultivators who would have no 

 difficulty at all in the matter. Let the man who now grows his 

 half-acre for his own family consumption — and how many such 

 there are ! — try the sprouting system, and we are persuaded that 

 the saving of food would be something enormous. It may be 

 considered audacious to say so, but we cannot but look upon the 

 potato disease as one of the strongest incentives to greater in- 

 dustry and energy on the part of tlie cultivator ; and should the 

 end of the affliction amount to almost a compulsion to obtain 

 two crops a-year instead of one, we shall have no cause of com- 

 plaint, but feel thankful to Him who can mercifully bring good 

 out of evil. 



Morecomhe, 1857. 



VII. — Oji Farmyard Manure, the Drainings of Dung -heaps, 

 and the Absorbing Properties of Soils. By Dr. Augustus 



VOELCKER. 



It is a prevailing opinion amongst farmers that the peculiar 

 smell which emanates from dun<;-heaps is caused by the escape 

 of ammonia, and that the deterioration of farmyard manure is 

 due, in a great measure, to the loss of this most fertilizing sub- 

 stance, which is incurred by careless management of dung-heaps. 

 In a paper published in the volume for 1856 of this Journal, 

 however, I showed that the proportion of free ammonia, or 

 rather volatile carbonate of ammonia — for it is in this form that 

 ammonia makes its appearance in putrefying organic matters — 

 is so inconsiderable in fresh as well as in fermented dung in all 

 stages of decomposition, that it is not worthy to be noticed 

 in a practical point of view. This being the case, it is evi- 

 dent that the escape of ammonia cannot be the cause of ma- 

 nure-heaps losing much in fertilising property even when 

 freely exposed to the atmosphere for a considerable length of 

 time. Consequently the chemical means which have been 

 suggested from time to time for preventing the loss of ammonia 

 in dung-heaps may be altogether dispensed with. As there 

 is, practically speaking, no free ammonia in either fresh or 



