226 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



results are mainly derived from observation on individual plants, under 

 much more varied circumstances, than generally occur within the same 

 period of time in respect to whole fields. The greatest advancement in 

 horticultural productions, and those that were most eminently successful, 

 when I was competing for the prizes of the American Institute and State 

 Society, were by the application of liquified manures formed from water- 

 closets, liquid from the cow and horse stables, laundry, waste from bathing- 

 tubs, and other sources to be found on small farms, which were placed in 

 a brick manure cistern, where they immediately passed into a state of inci- 

 pient decomposition, and rapidly became fit for use. When drawn off, it 

 was excessively diluted with water, and applied to the plants when they 

 were in a state of active growth ; at any other period the effects would be 

 prejudicial. I used this composition on a squash vine, and obtained many 

 specimens of squash weighing from one hundred and seventy-five to two 

 hundred and one pounds, melons eighty pounds, cucumbers six feet long, 

 corn fourteen feet high, bearing fourteen full ears to the hill, &c. ; all of 

 which were publicly exhibited, and are mentioned in the State Agricultu- 

 ral Report. 



The j)roduce in favor of liquid manures, over solid, preponderates greatly 

 in favor of liquid, in size, quantity, quality, flavor, color and weight. Ex- 

 perience has fully proved to me, that for all crops ordinarily raised, sew- 

 age is the most valuable manure that has yet been introduced to farmers. 

 I have often lost my strawberries, gooseberries, and raspberries by an 

 application of solid manure, which forced the leaves to grow, but not so 

 liquid, which I applied when the flower buds were forming, and as a con- 

 sequence produced fruit in place of leaves. Liquid manure may be misap- 

 plied in wet weather, and is of course subject to the casualties of rain 

 storms, but far less so than solid manure top dressings. While liquid ap- 

 plications are immediate on the growth of vegetation, they have been prac- 

 tically found not transient in the soil, as was anticipated they would be at 

 the commencement of their use. At all events my experiments with liquid 

 manures have been most successful, from the fact that all the efficacious 

 elements contained in them have been so combined as not to be washed 

 away, thus doubling their efficacy, and placing that most important of all 

 sciences, farming, on principles as sure, as well conducted manufactories, 

 and enabling the farmer to carry on the operations of agriculture, with 

 more security, and less anxiety, than any other of the pursuits of man. I 

 have positively satisfied myself by experiment that land thoroughly under- 

 drained never deteriorates, but constantly increases in fertility from year 

 to year, though it may be washed every week through and through by heavy 

 rains, because the fertilizing elements in the soil, as well as the liquid sub- 

 stances added, are retained by it chemically, for the use of plants. To 

 prove this fact, I put 120 lbs. of pulverized clay in a keg and bored a tap 

 hole at the bottom, then poured in seventy quarts of strong urine and sew- 

 age water, of the most offensive character, and the result was a pellucid 

 stream ofwater perfectly free from odor from the bottom. 



