1819.] upon Animal and Vegetable Substances. 129 



the soil to supply by its decomposition carbonic acid, the nvag- 

 nesian limestone will remain long in its caustic state. 



I perfectly agree with Mr. Dinsdale that nothing can be worse 

 managed than all this part of farming in many parts of England. 

 Farmers should make a sunk place out of the way of the 

 house, as the Chinese do, where a large vat should be retained, 

 covered with a wooden cover, into which the piggery might be 

 discharged, and all the liquid mixture of the house emptied, and 

 mixed with water, and thus thrown on the fields. It is certain 

 that liquid goes three times as far as dry manure, and if the 

 straw thrown in dirty lanes that makes such poor dung were thrown 

 into the vat, it would soon afford double quantities of manure to 

 every farmer ; but it must be kept out of the way of the house ; 

 for I was myself a witness to a whole family being carried off by 

 having a place for fattening hogs close to their house ; but a vat 

 may be managed with a degree of cleanliness that can be pro- 

 ductive of no evil. When I take up my next trench, I shall 

 continue the subject, and I hope to try the effect also of magnesian 

 lime, and whether every species of animal manure is preserved. 



I am, Sir, 8cc. &c. 



Agnes Ibbetson. 



Article VIII. 



On the indigenous Plants in the North of England. 

 By Mr. Winch. 



(To Dr. Thomson.) 



SIR, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Dec. 21, 1818. 



During the course of the present year you admitted into the 

 11th volume of the Annals of Philosophy the first and second 

 part of a tract on the distribution of plants through the northern 

 counties of England ; may I hope the remarks now transmitted 

 will meet an equally favourable reception. Some meteorological 

 observations should have been comprised in this paper, but I 

 have not as yet ascertained in a satisfactory manner the temper- 

 ature of the springs of water that issue into our deepest mines — 

 a fact too interesting in an inquiry on subjects depending in a 

 considerable degree on the mean temperature of the earth, as 

 well as of the atmosphere, to be passed over in silence. These 

 shall be communicated at a future opportunity. 



Seven different species of fruit-trees ripen their fruit in the 

 southern countries, which seldom or never do so in this latitude ; 

 these are the vine, the fig, the quince, the medlar, the walnut, 

 the chestnut, and the mulberry. This may be ascribed in some 

 measure to the prevalence of cold easterly winds during the 

 spring months destroying the blossoms ; to the low temper- 

 ature of our autumns, which prevents the young wood from 



Vol. XIV. N°II. I 



