Manurial Froperties of Clay from Gas-JVorhs. 303 



land and assured me, as did also his workpeople, that tbey pulled 

 between two and three times the weight of onions off the same 

 area of the part on which " the blue stuff" was, compared 

 with what was pulled from the part where it was not ap- 

 plied. He sells the onions bt/ iceiffht to the West-Riding 

 House of Corection at Wakefield, and is, therefore, much more 

 competent to form an opinion than one who merely judges of 

 what he sees, though the difference is plain to the most casual 

 observer. 



Many compounds of cyanogen produced by the distillation, 

 and retained by the clay, found corresponding ones in the urea 

 and uric acid of urine and guano, the hydrocyanic acid of bitter 

 almonds, peach kernels, the leaves of the cherry laurel, &c. when 

 distilled, and other compounds of both kingdoms of Nature, 

 which it is beside our object to discuss. 



At present, however, any attempt at producing analyses to 

 account for visible effects, and saying thus and thus these sub- 

 stances act, hence and not elsewhere or otherwise the fertilizing 

 power is obtained, would be, in my opinion, unpardonable pre- 

 sumption. The analyses must be explained by the phenomena, 

 the phenomena must not be tortured to fit the analyses. I have 

 hitherto withheld the results of much labour on this ground, and 

 propose to learn from, and not to impose interpretations upon. 

 Nature. Chemistry is honoured by becoming Nature's hand- 

 maid — it is made contemptible when put forward as her guide. 

 Meanwhile some of the practical results obtained by the employ- 

 menrt of this most, complex manure are sufficiently remarkable 

 to demand and repay attention. 



The first attempt to use it in the field was made in 1854, 

 and tlie results were almost entire failure. One farmer put 

 enough for two acres upon less than half an acre and sowed 

 the land with swedes. I warned him of the result if he de- 

 parted from the directions given him, and am told that he 

 had three small turnips upon his half acre. Another person 

 shot up a cartload upon some grass and left it there for days, 

 and for two years that spot was as bare as a turnpike-road. It 

 was moreover applied with a sliovel to growing vegetables in a 

 kitchen-garden, and they gradually dwindled away or died almost 

 at once, according to the dose they happened to receive. This 

 kind of thing excited the strongest prejudice, and one farmer 

 who laid it on his grass by shovelfuls and destroyed every blade, 

 declared that it was fit for nothing but to ruin the crops. 

 Annoyances, arising from mere disregard of directions, were so 

 many, that I strongly advise those who attempt to prove any 

 thing new to refuse a supply to every person who will not un- 

 dertake to use it rigid I v as directed. Had not the truths taught 



