834 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



to five or six inches thick. These are to be turned the grass-side downwards, until the mould-side is 

 thoroughly dry, and then to be set the grass-side outwards, until they are dry enough to burn. The fire 

 may be kindled with brushwood, and kept smothering, by laying the sods or lumps on gradually, as the 

 fire breaks out, until ten or fifteen loads of ashes are raised in one heap, which the workmen formerly 

 completed for a shilling or eigh teen-pence each load of ashes. The places from which the hills have been 

 removed may be sown with grass-seeds. Besides the destruction of the ants, this is a ready, though by no 

 means an economical way of raising manure, and in some cases ought not to be neglected, on grounds 

 where such a process is required. On some soils ashes are found in themselves an excellent manure ; 

 and, perhaps, generally, ashes raised in this way, would be found highly advantageous as bottomings for 

 farm-yards and dunghills. 



5205. Where grass lands are sufficiently rolled vi^ith a heavy roller once or oftener every 

 year, no ant-hills will ever be formed greater than the roller can compress, and conse- 

 quently no injury will be sustained. In this, as in most other cases of disease, proper 

 regimen is the best cure. In domestic economy, various directions are given for de- 

 stroying bugs, lice, and other vermin ; but who ever had any to destroy, who attended 

 properly to cleanliness ? 



5206. The surface of some grass lands that have been long rolled are apt to get into 

 that tenacious state denominated hide bound. When this is the case, scarifying the turf 

 with a plough, consisting only of coulters, or harrow-teeth, so that the whole surface 

 may be cut or torn, is to be recommended. That tenacious state, rolling tends to in- 

 crease ; whereas, by scarifying, the surface is loosened, and the roots acquire new means 

 of improved vegetation. This operation seems particularly useful, when it precedes 

 the manuring. When hay land of a retentive quality is pastured by cattle or horses in 

 wet seasons, it receives much injury from their feet, and becomes what is technically 

 called poached. Every step Ihey take, leaves an impression, which rain fills with water, 

 and then the hole stands full like a cup. This wetness destroys the herbage, not only in 

 the hole, but that also which surrounds it, while at the same time the roots of the grasses, 

 as well as the ground, are chilled and injured, No good farmer, therefore, will permit any 

 cattle to set a foot on such land in wet weather, and few during the winter months, on any 

 consideration. Sheep are generally allowed to pasture on young grasses in dry weather, 

 from the end of autumn to the beginning of March ; they are then removed, and it 

 rarely happens that any animal is admitted till the weather be dry, and the surface so 

 firm as to bear their pressure, without being poached or injured. 



5207. In manuring upland meudoivs, the season, the sort, the quantity, and the fre- 

 quency of application are to be considered. 



5208. With regard to the season at which manure should be applied, a great difference 

 of opinion prevails among the farmers of England. In the county of Middlesex, where 

 almost all the grass lands are preserved for hay, the manure is invariably laid on in Oc- 

 tober (Middlesex Report, p. 224.), while the land is sufficiently dry to bear the driving 

 of loaded carts without injury, and when the heat of the day is so moderated as not to 

 exhale the volatile parts of the dung. Others prefer applying it immediately after the 

 hay-time, from about the middle of July to the end of August, which is said to be the 

 <' good old time" (Com. to Board of Agriculture, vol. iv. p. 138.) ; and if that season be 

 inconvenient, any time from the beginning of February to the beginning of April. 

 (Dickson s Practical Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 915.) It is, however, too common a practice 

 to carry out the manure during frosty weather, when, though the ground is not cut up 

 by the carts, the fertilizing parts of the dung are dissipated, and washed away by the 

 snow and rains before they can penetrate the soil. 



5209. Tfiere is scarcely any sort of manure that will not be useful when laid on the surface of grass 

 grounds ; but, in general, those of the more rich dung kinds are the most suitable for the older sort of 

 sward lands; and dung, in composition with fresh vegetable earthy substances, the more useful in the new 

 leys or grass lands. In Middlesex it is the practice of the best farmers to prefer the richest dung they can 

 procure, and seldom to mix it Avith any sort of earthy material, as they find it to answer the best in regard 

 to the quantity of produce, which is the principal object in view ; the cultivators depending chiefly for the 

 sale of their hay in the London markets. It is the practice to turn over the dung that is brought from 

 London in a tolerable state of rottenness, once chopping it well down in the operation, so as to be in a 

 middling state of fineness when put upon the land. It is, necessary, however, that it should be in a more 

 rotten and reduced state when applied in the spring, than when the autumn is chosen for that purpose. 

 {Dickson's Practical Agriculture, vol, ii. p. 915.) 



5210. Some interesting experiments have been made with different kinds of m,anure, for the purpose of 

 ascertaining their effects, both in regard to the quantity and quality of the produce on different kinds of 

 land. Fourteen lots, of half an acre each, were thus manured, and the grass was made into^ hay, all as 

 nearly alike as possible. The greatest weight of hay was taken from the lot manured with horse, 

 cow, and butcher 's dung, all mixed together, of each about an equal quantity. It lay in that state 

 about two months ; and was then turned over, and allowed to lie eight or ten days more, after which 

 it was put on the land before it had done fermenting, and spread immediately. And to ascertain the 

 quality of the produce of the different lots, a small handful from each was laid down on a dry, clean place, 

 where there was little or no grass, and six horses were turned out to them one after another. In select- 

 ing the lots, there seems to have been little difference of taste among the horses; and all of them agreed 

 in rejecting two lots, one of which had been manured with blubber mixed with soil, and the other with 

 soot, in both instances laid on in the month ^pf April preceding. {Lancashire Report, p, 130. etseq.) 



5211. The proportion of manure that is necessary must, in a great measure, depend 

 upon the circumstances of the land, and the facility of procuring it. In the district 

 of London, where the manure is of a very good and enriching quality, from its being 

 produced in stables and other places where animals are highly fed, the quantity is usually 



