containing Nitrogen. 475 
must be taken to pulverise the oil-cake sufficiently. A method 
which has been found to be good is to mix soot and salt in 
about equal parts, some weeks previous to the addition of the 
sulphate of ammonia; the salt condenses moisture from the 
atmosphere and fixes the carbonaceous particles, and these 
tend to hold the carbonic acid and ammoniacal gases derived 
from the atmosphere and decomposing organic matters in the 
soil, and render them of easy access to the plants. Ifa very 
speedy effect be required, the stimulating properties of this 
dressing may be increased, by setting free a portion of the 
ammonia by a subsequent very slight dressing of hydrate of 
lime (for obvious reasons this mixture should not be made 
before the sowing) ; but as such a dressing is always attended 
with loss of ammonia, this should never be resorted to unless 
it is otherwise unavoidable, and if possible when rain may be 
expected to fall. And this leads me to a remark on the very 
common practice, in this county particularly, of mixing fer- 
menting farm-yard manure with lime, by which all the ammo- 
niacal salts are decomposed and the ammonia driven off, and 
a large portion of fertilizing material absolutely lost: it is 
difficult however to convince the farmer accustomed to this 
practice, for the immediate benefit which results is consider- 
able; for in the first place the vegetable tissues are broken up, 
and put in a condition more easily to be converted into carbonic 
acid, and hence more easily absorbed by plants, and besides 
its bulk is materially diminished, so that 20 loads of the mix- 
ture contains the vegetable matter thus prepared of perhaps 
40 of the manure in its ordinary state, and there can be no 
doubt is more speedily exhausted. 
The manures here referred to, and most other saline ma- 
nures when used as a top-dressing, should be applied when 
the plant is dry after a shower of rain, or during hazy wea- 
ther, but not when any continued fall of rain is anticipated ; 
in the first instance it is slowly dissolved by dews, &c., and 
permeates the soil in every part, and in the latter a consider- 
able portion of its effect is lost as the salt is washed out and 
carried away in solution by the drains. When the soil is 
too dry, it remains inactive. It is perhaps supererogative in 
the present day to insist upon thorough drainage for the 
effectual action of any manure; it must be clear that unless 
the soil has been well disintegrated and a free passage exists 
among its particles, neither moisture, air, nor manure, can 
thoroughly penetrate, and this condition is effected by drain- 
age alone. 
With regard to the use of sulphate of ammonia with the 
drill and depositing it with the seed: in some experiments 
