150 Farmyard Manure. 



cient in lime. Perhaps it may not even contain sufficient to 

 supply the wants of some crops, and seems to be endowed with 

 the property of absorbing lime from manuring matters, affording 

 thereby an interesting instance how special provision is made in 

 soils for the absorption of those constituents which are naturally 

 deficient in them, and which are required in considerable quan- 

 tities for the healthy and luxuriant growth of our crops. 



In the preceding experiment just the opposite took place ; for 

 it will be remembered that the drainings, after passing through 

 the calcareous clay soil, contained a great deal more of lime than 

 before filtration. Similar differences will be observed with 

 respect to other constituents originally present in the liquid and 

 retained in the stiff and in the sandy soil in very different pro- 

 portions. I abstain from noticing any minor changes in the 

 composition of the filtered liquid, nor shall I indulge in any 

 speculations respecting the compounds in the soil which have 

 contributed to these changes and the new combinations in the soil 

 which may have resulted from them. Our present knowledge 

 on the subject is far too imperfect to warrant us to theorise pro- 

 fitably on these matters ; I therefore prefer to send forth for the 

 present my analytical results without any further comment, and 

 conclude by expressing the hope that I may be permitted to con- 

 tinue similar inquiries into the physiology of soils, and do not 

 doubt that great and important practical benefits will in due 

 course be derived from increased knowledge of the properties of 

 soils and the changes manuring matters undergo when in contact 

 with them. 



Hoyul Agricultural College, Cirencester, 

 Jane, 1857. 



VIII. — DairT/ Blanarjement. By Thomas Horsfall. 



On" resuming my observations for the Society's Journal on the 

 treatment of dairy cows, I cannot properly omit to explain cir- 

 cumstances which appear in some degree to have influenced the 

 results during the present season. 



Towards the close of July, 1856, and during the warm weather 

 of August, my cows, whilst in pasture by day and housed during 

 the night, were attacked by that unwelcome visitor the pleuro- 

 pneumonia, which affected the majority of them, and continued 

 with little intermission to the close of December. Though by 

 treatment which I purpose to describe, nearly all have been 

 restored, yet it is not without more or less damage to the lung — 

 an organ essential to the due performance of every function of 



