FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 209 



garden, where it will be of great service as a manure, and 

 in expeling insects. 



We shall presently say something further of this, and 

 other manures afforded from the dwellinghouse. 



Saltpetre should be dissolved in lye of wood ashes, in 

 which seed should be soaked, before so-wing or planting. 

 See SOWING. 



Perhaps old urine, or even common salt, would be found 

 a valuable addition, in making a liquor for steeping seed 

 before sowing. 



Seawater is said to contain saltpetre, sulphur, and oil, be- 

 side common salt ; and is therefore preferable to the latter 

 article for manuring, when put in composts, or otherwise. 



Mr. Deane makes mention of a hundred hills of potatoes, 

 which had two quarts of water applied to each, immediately 

 after planting ; and he says that the product of these was 

 one-half more than the same number of adjoining hills pro- 

 duced. Most probably, a quart to each hill would have 

 been better. 



He mentions also a piece of flax, of which one side was 

 short and yellow ; but, on its being sprinkled with this wa- 

 ter, it equaled the rest of the piece in about ten days, and 

 eventually was the best. 



These two experiments were made on stiff soils, but he 

 says he found sandy grounds equally benefited by this 

 manure. 



This water might be carried from the sea some distance 

 on the land, to advantage, in the following manner: Take 

 a one-horse cart, and suspend a tight box, rightly shaped, 

 under the axletree ; the box having a valve in the under 

 side ; drive the cart into the water, and the valve opens, 

 and lets that fluid into the box; and, when the cart is driv- 

 en out, the valve closes and holds the water. 



When the cart is driven out to the ground on which the 

 water is to be spread, this operation may be performed in 

 the manner we shall next describe : A tube is to be provid- 

 ed, say, twelve feet in length, with small holes bored into 

 it at the distance of six inches apart, and the ends of the 

 tube closed; attach this to the under side of the box, cross- 

 ways, at either end, so as to be out of the way of the wheels 

 of the cart. 



When you come to where the water is to be spread, it is 

 to be let out of the box into the tube, by an aperture for 

 the purpose; and as the cart moves along the water runs 

 out of each of the small holes in the tube, and thus sprin- 

 kles over a piece of ground of twelve feet wide, till the 

 whole is exhausted. 



With the next load, begin where the water ceased runing 

 before, and thus continue the watered strip across the field. 



