1818.] Scientific Intelligence. 465 



instead of being a well-rotted mass, they are, nine times out of 

 ten, almost as far from this state as when thrown together ; for 

 even at the very bottom, it is common to find them half mouldy 

 straw and dung from the stable, &c. In this state what they 

 call manure is taken to the land, and, as if it required purifying 

 from noxious qualities, is suffered to lay in small heaps before 

 spreading, and perhaps some days longer before it is ploughed 

 in ; before which, the heat of the sun has evaporated what virtue 

 had not drained off at home, and yet the farmer stares at the 

 result. 



I have pointed out these errors to more than one farmer in 

 Lincolnshire ; and they have found a very considerable saving 

 indeed in manure by throwing the drainings of their stables, 

 cow-sheds, piggeries, &c. back upon their dung-hills, and turn- 

 ing them more frequently. And especially where they have 

 covered them up with sods or sward to keep in the vapours 

 necessarily evolved during the process of decomposition ; for I 

 need not tell you that this method may form a principle more 

 powerfully conducive to vegetation than all the boasted powers 

 of muriate of soda. 



The Chinese (who are said to surpass the whole world in mak- 

 ing manures) keep their dung and other matter in vats or deep 

 trenches well lined, and in a constantly liquid state ; for which 

 purpose, if they have not urine sufficient, water is thrown in, and 

 in a similar though more liquid mixture, they steep the whole of 

 their seed corn, not unfrequently throwing in a portion of nitrate 

 of potash. 



1 shall close my letter by adding — without a proper attention 

 to the processes of fermentation and putrefaction, and, as Mrs. 

 Ibbetson justly observes, the adapting of the seed to the soil, 

 agriculture never can arrive at any thing like perfection. 



I am, &c. &c. W. M. Dinsdale. 



XV. Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. 



Fifth Annual Report of the Council, Oct. 1818. — On review- 

 ing the history of the Society since the last anniversary, the 

 Council is happy to be able to announce the increased and 

 increasing prosperity of the Institution. 



The extensive and elegant museum, which is now completed, 

 and which is calculated to meet the necessities of an establish- 

 ment of this kind in its state of perfection, cannot fail to have a 

 happy influence on the fortunes of the Society. At the same 

 time that it affords every convenience for the prosecution of the 

 science of mineralogy and geology, it offers a secure, ample, and 

 elegant depository for all kinds of valuable specimens, which the 

 liberality and public spirit of its members may wish to see con- 

 centrated and preserved, for the good of science in general, and 

 for the interests of this county in particular. 



Much greater additions, as well of simple minerals as of 

 geological specimens, have been made to the cabinet than dur- 



Vol. XII. N°VI. 2G 



