98 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



made, with little expense, of common stone laid in lime, and 

 having a wooden cover for security on the top. They were well 

 cemented within, and might be emptied by a pump, or dipped 

 out with a bucket. 



An eminent farmer in Yorkshire has lately stated that he has, 

 within the last ten years, made three tanks upon his farm, for the 

 purpose of receiving the liquid manure. The first he made con 

 tained forty cubic yards of liquid, but he had enlarged it to one 

 hundred and fifty yards, which was filled three times a year, by 

 the produce of his farm. He is satisfied, from his experience, that 

 thirty cubic yards of this liquid manure would cause it to pro 

 duce as heavy a crop as any other manure which could be 

 applied to it. With the manure which flowed into the tank, he 

 had manured twelve acres ; and this had produced heavy crops of 

 grass, which he had mowed three times, and then there was an 

 abundance, which he mowed late in the season and gave to his 

 horses. This he had found to be the case upon land which had 

 not been pastured for nine years, but always been mown. 



I shall not offend any truly sensible person, if I add that the 

 most careful provision is made for the saving of all the human 

 excrements, by a movable tub placed under the seat of the water- 

 closet, and concealed by a door, which is carefully emptied and 

 cleansed daily, and thus saved from being offensive. This is 

 always mixed with soil, and, in the experience of one of the 

 farmers, cannot be safely applied to the land until it is a year old. 

 Of the value of this source of manure, now, in many cases, much 

 worse than thrown away, I shall subjoin some curious calcula 

 tions in a note, which my reader, being forewarned, may peruse 

 or not, at his pleasure.* 



* The committee for building a Lunatic Asylum, at Derby, proposed to Mr. 

 Haywood, an agricultural chemist of much talent and experience, the inquiry as 

 to the results which &quot; the manure obtained from a given number of patients is 

 capable of producing, in the growth of crops, supposing the entire drainage of the 

 establishment to be applied to this use.&quot; 



To this Mr. Haywood replied m a very elaborate and scientific report, with a 

 copy of which he favored me ; from which 1 shall quote a few paragraphs. 



&quot; The great object of my inquiry is, to ascertain what quantity of arable land, 

 in the present four-course system of cultivation, can be kept in a constant state 

 of fertility by the application of all the excretions, both liquid and solid, which are 

 produced by a certain number of individuals, together with the minor fertilizing 

 substances which the proper management of a large domestic establishment is 

 capable of producing ; also to give, as accurately as possible, the extent of land 



