228 ON MANURES. 



pots, in the proper season, are moved into the open air, it would con- 

 tribute greatly to their health, and preserve them from the effects of 

 too great evaporation, to imbed them well in moss or litter. As a sub- 

 stitute for this precaution, the plants are generally exposed to a northern 

 or eastern aspect, where the influence of the sun but rarely reaches 

 them, but which would be very beneficial if their roots were properly 

 protected. The advantage of such a protection may be seen when the 

 pots are plunged into the soil — a method which communicates the 

 greatest luxuriance to the plants, but unfits them to resume their 

 winter stations. 



ON MANURES. 



BY A PRACTITIONER. 



Manures which stand next to the mineral mixtures of sandy clay and 

 chalk are potash and carbon, which may be obtained in a mass, cheaply 

 and readily, by digging a hole, paving the bottom, and by putting into 

 it all weeds and refuse vegetables, and occasionally a layer of quick- 

 lime, refuse water from the house, particularly soapsuds (which contain 

 potash), chamber-lye, refuse from the pigs, cows, slop-pail, &c. ; these 

 will in a few months be so decomposed and enriched by the aid of 

 the lime, that a mass of potash and carbon will ba obtained, and these 

 are the origin and basis of all vegetables. 



An accumulated mass of manure should never be allowed to have the 

 liquor run away from it, for its very essence is potash (a piece of wood 

 can have its potash washed out by continual running). All dung- 

 heaps, therefore, should have an earth under them of a different nature 

 to the soil which they are intended for as a dressing ; for example, if 

 we desire to enrich a heavy clay soil, we must have sand or road- 

 scrapings, and a little lime, if it can be procured, laid under each 

 dung-heap ; and if we desire to enrich a sandy loam, we must lay chalk 

 and marl, or chalk and clay, under our dung-heaps. For the husbandry 

 of manures and their increase, let all animals be kept with a sand or 

 other earth under their litter at all times, to soak up the moisture ; a 

 turf might be lined over the stable, cow-house, or pig-sty, and removed 

 every week, and thus would a great accumulation of vegetable stimulus 

 be obtained, and this, indeed, would be a husbandman-like process, a 

 gathering of gold. 



Stable Dungs, which ferment, should be buried in the ground as 

 early as possible after coming from the horses, for every gas or steam 

 which passes from it fermenting is a loss of its nutritive substance, for 

 all manures are but a concentrated mass of gases ; air and water, or 

 their component parts, are the bases of all manures which have 

 vegetable origins. 



Sugar Scum is a favourite manure for those lands where there is a 

 want of chalky matter, particularly on the sands, previously to a crop 

 of turnips ; but this scum is principally composed of lime : and a better 

 article can be obtained from pounded chalk that has soaked up the 

 juices from a dung-hill. 



