532 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



surpassed in any part of the country, perhaps not in the world. 

 for I can hardly think of any culture more exact, more clean, 

 or more beautiful, or any crops more luxuriant than I saw here, 

 the practice of the farmers is to place this heap near the side 

 of the field intended to be cultivated, and then to pour upon it a 

 copious sprinkling from the cisterns ; the heap is then shovelled 

 over, and the whole thoroughly intermixed ; in which case it 

 becomes an excellent manure to be applied before sowing. 



6. JAUFFRET S MANURE. The preparation of Jauffret, which 

 has had much celebrity in France, deserves notice here. I have 

 seen one similar applied, and with success, as far as the object 

 aimed at was concerned, in the United States. The object of 

 this invention was to find some means by which straw, brush, 

 ferns, heaths, broom, and other woody substances, might be 

 speedily brought into a state of decomposition, so that the mix 

 ture might be applied to the land. He supposes it possible to 

 supply nutriment to the land in this way, without the aid of ani 

 mals. He advises, therefore, to collect a heap of materials com 

 posed of vegetable matter, such as straw, ferns, heath, broom, 

 turf, bushes, small branches of trees, stalks, &c. ; and when this 

 heap is made, the articles being intermixed and pressed together, 

 you are then to prepare near it a liquid of the following mate 

 rials : 



100 parts of fecal matter and urine. 

 25 &quot; &quot; soot from the chimney. 

 200 &quot; &quot; gypsum in powder. 

 30 - : unslaked lime. 

 10 a &quot; unleeched wood ashes. 

 A small quantity of salt. 

 l - i: &amp;lt;: refined saltpetre. 



25 parts of the drainage of a manure heap, or of liquid 



fecal matter. 



These matters are to be mixed in a place by the heap, with 

 water enough to make a quantity of liquor sufficient to water 

 this heap, and, in a few days, produce such a state of heat and 

 fermentation as will reduce and wholly decompose it. The 

 plaster or gypsum must be applied by slow degrees and in small 

 quantities ; otherwise it would become hard. Near the heap, 

 which should be placed on a piece of ground slightly inclined. 



