306 Manurial PropcTties of Clay from Gas- Works. 



proof that nearly throughout the United Kingdom the utmost 

 effort can barely give an adequate dressing to the arable land 

 which requires it. Nor need it be proved that the management 

 of grass has generally been to feed or mow continuall}' with 

 hardly a return, till the diminished produce compelled something 

 to be put on, if it were only lime, road-scrapings, and ditchings. 

 This is not charged upon British farmers as a fault, for I have 

 no doul)t that it was inevitable, but it need not occur again, for 

 an annual supply of manure can be produced at home, which 

 Avill suflice for every acre of the tliree kingch)ms, a^ in a few 

 years will double the produce over the green acres which adorn 

 our land, and which will then be the farmer's glory instead of a 

 reproach. All the nitrogen of wool and hair came originally 

 from the soil, and most of it from grass. The five millions of 

 pounds of sulphur on the sheep's backs of this country were 

 principally derived from grass, and if we assume an average of 

 \h ton of hay (or the equivalent of grass) per acre, and 7 

 per cent, as the quantity of ash, no less than 235 lbs. of mineral 

 matter are removed with every crop of hay. Deterioration was 

 the only thing which could arise from years of removal without 

 return, and it is time that we adopted a contrary course and 

 raised the fame of our meadows and pastures to a level with the 

 peerless fame of our ploughed fields. Experiments of many 

 months' duration, which would be out of place here, show that 

 the gas-works of Great Britain are capable at present of pro- 

 ducing nearly or quite 600,000 t(ms of manure per annum, of 

 which 2 of a ton is a sufficient, and a ton an abundant dressing 

 per acre. Upon pastures I should myself use half a ton mixed 

 with a ton of earth, road -scrapings, &c., and by a systematic 

 annual application, should have no fear of doubling the return 

 now yielde<l by the grass.* This would set free for the root 

 crops all the manure produced upon t!ie farm, and all which is 

 now purchased, and would thus improve the means ol keeping 

 cattle, and therefore of growing coin. Tlie experiments upon 

 which these opinions are based extend over three years, and have 

 been made upon various kinds of soil, but the principal portion 

 has been upon the clays of the coal measures. 



In the winter of 1854-5 a small quantity was used on about 

 half a rood of a 10 acre meadow by a larmer named Turner, of 

 Stanley, near Wakefield. The applicati(m was made without 

 my knowledge. This field had been mown annually for four or 

 five years and had never received any manure, and previous to 

 that time it had had a heavy dressing of soot. It is generally wet, 



* If this were done in Deceml)er or January to the grass iutei.ded for early 

 lambs, a supply of early feed would be obtained which can be procured by no 

 other process within my knowledge. 



