MANURES. 529 



door fowls ; but the reason is not ascertained. The dung of 

 geese is not so much valued as either, perhaps for the reason that 

 they feed on grass. The birds, whose excrements form the 

 guano, feed wholly upon fish. 



Guano has been used to some extent in France, but its use is 

 much discouraged by the extraordinary adulterations which have 

 taken place in it. These adulterations, according to chemical 

 analysis, have amounted to ninety per cent. Where it has been 

 used, its fertilizing powers have been acknowledged ; but the 

 French farmers whom I have met with have not considered it 

 superior in efficacy to poudrette, or dried night-soil. On a visit 

 to a French farmer, about twenty miles from Paris, the state of 

 whose farm would have been creditable in any country, and was 

 certainly inferior to that of few farms which I have visited, he 

 informed me that he had made trial of stable manure, of guano, 

 and of poudrette ; and that he found the guano powerful, that 

 the stable manure produced the largest growth, and that the 

 poudrette produced the best grain. It is obvious that we want 

 many more details and circumstances to form any strong con 

 clusion from this experiment. In all cases, however, among the 

 French, which came under my notice, I found a strong approval 

 of guano, but the preference given to poudrette. More experi 

 ence may result in a different verdict. 



4. LIQUID MANURES. AND MEANS OF SAVING THEM. The 

 preparations for saving the liquid manure, which are universal in 

 Flanders, and which are occasionally met with both in France 

 and Switzerland, deserve the most particular mention. There 

 is good reason to believe, that, if it could be saved and applied 

 with equal ease, the liquid manure of an animal is of more value 

 than the solid excrements. The Flemish farmers suffer nothing 

 of this sort to be lost ; and it is stated that in Ghent the servants 

 receive a compensation for saving the waste waters of the house. 



On a Flemish farm there is always a urine cistern, usually 

 adjoining the stable or cow-house. A gutter or trough behind 

 the cattle or the horses conveys all the liquids into this cistern, 

 which is placed outside, rather than immediately under the cattle, 

 that it may be accessible both for the removal, and the mixture 

 of other matters. This cistern is sometimes twenty feet in 

 length, twelve in breadth, and six in depth. It is built of bricks. 



D 



VOL. II. 



