1S37] 



FARINIERS'REGISTER. 



195 



plough; otherwise, it must be chopped with 

 spiules. The land is tlien uciieraily sown with 

 Oiiis, Tollowod by liarlt'y or potatoes, and the, third 

 year hy wiuvit. The lt)iinli year the hind is laiii 

 down either witli oats or harley. clover anil uras- 

 ses, and I lie crops are said to hi; very j^reat. It is 

 also fiiiind that its eU'ecls remain ion<£er on the 

 land than marl; and alllioiifih tliat wiiich is over- 

 niaried is spoiled liir grass, yel tliat never happens 

 to sea tiiud.* In many parts ot' Scotland it lias 

 also been l!)nnd to answer very well f()r the im- 

 provement of moss; upon whitdi, after il has been 

 well (h-ained, the sleech is laid, lo the amount ol' 

 lOJ single-horse cart-Icads per acre.t To this, 

 however, we nnst add, that thai the repetition of 

 it in larixe rpiantities fiii of its ibriner ellecis. In 

 Sassex it has been used to the extent of 1200 lo 

 1300 Iiushels per acre; but. on those firms where 

 it has been too fref|uently used, and which are 

 thus said to iiave been '-over-dosed," it is no lon- 

 ger found lo be of any service. J 



From tile same. 



REMARKS ON MAXURES IX GENERAL — PU- 

 TRESCENT, BIIXERAL, AND 31ISCELLANE- 

 OUS. 



We hfive devoted a larsre portion of this publi- 

 cation to the subject of manures, both because, in 

 tite present state ol' agriculture, arable land can- 

 not be made to pay the expenses of cultivation 

 without the most skilful and economical, though 

 iinsparinir, use of the various kinds, and because 

 it is notorious that a great number of liirmers are 

 either iirnorant of the most judicious mode of their 

 application, or negliijent of the means of their in- 

 crease and preservation. The latter remark ap- 

 plies more especially to fitrm-yard manure, which 

 no one can ride over any part of the country with- 

 out seeing wasted — dung carted out of the yards 

 and thrown up by the side of some lane without 

 any Ibundation or further care, until, perhaps after 

 having becotne mouldy and firefanijcd, it is at 

 lenirth turned over, while the best part of its 

 juices have been allowed to run into the ditches, or 

 to stagnate around the heaps — thus, neiiher assist- 

 ing the proper lermentation of the dupfj, nor mix- 

 imr tlie heap at such recrular periods as to ensure 

 its being all of one quality. § 



♦Holland's Survey of Cheshire, App., No. III. 



fSin2;er's Survey ol Dumfriesshire, p. 311 — Gen. 

 Rep. of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 353. 



JYoung's Surrey of Sussex, p. 218. 



§ On this, however, the foliowins; remark has been 

 inserted in the report of the committee of the Don- 

 caster Asjricultural Association upon bone manure — 

 •The general motle of managing fold manure is erro- 

 neous, both as to the expense incurred and loss from 

 evaporation. To prevent both, upon carrying it out 

 to th8 field, it should be forked up to a considerable 

 height, and the wdiole covered with the soil nearest to 

 the heap; a long heap, like a potatoa heap, is therefore 

 best; as it accumulates, taking care always to cover the 

 whole of the day's loadinir, excepting the end to which 

 the next day's work is to be added. The confinement 

 of the steam, which is always observed upon a fresh- 

 mads heap of manure, etfectually secures the decom- 

 position of the whole; which will cut out like a jelly, 

 without the usual process of turning over and over.' — 

 p. 31. 



We have already slated our opinion so clearly 

 on the subject of lermentation, in our view of pu- 

 tres>-ent manures, lh.it it may be thoiiirht hardly 

 necessary to add any thin;'; to the discussion of the 

 point in dispute; yet, as many liirmers have been 

 influenced by the reasoniiiixoi' chemists, who pos- 

 sess no practicid knowledge of agriculture, in fa- 

 vor of the invariable appplication of long dung — 

 thourrh opposed by experience — and as it is ex- 

 tremely important that the (piestion should be set 

 at rest, we rerpiest serious attention to the follow- 

 ing extracts from an able article which has ap- 

 peared in the Quarterly Journal of agriculture 

 since the publication of what we had written.* 



It was prnmuliiated as the opinion of Sir 

 Humphrey Davy, in 1809, and it has, till lately, 

 obtained the confidence of most chemists, that 

 'as snnn as dung begins to decompose, it ihrnxos 

 off" its volatile parts, which are the most valuable 

 and most efficient. Dung which ha3 fermented, 

 so as to become a mere soft cohesive mass, has gene- 

 rally lost from one third to one-half of its most 

 useful constituent elements; and that it may exert 

 its full action upon the plant, and lose none of its 

 nutritive powers, it should evidently be applied 

 much sooner, and long before decomposition has ar- 

 rived at its ultimate result.'' Experience has, ne- 

 vertheless, acted in direct opposition to this opin- 

 ion. Manure has been continually applied in 'a 

 soft cohesive mass,' and it has continued to raise 

 lame crops; whereas, had it been applied 'long 

 before decomposition had arrived at its ultimate 

 result,' that result would probably have been a 

 loss of crop, manure, and labor. 



If is certainly an erroneous assumption to say 

 the first stasre ol fermentation in dung must neces- 

 sarily throw oH' its most valuable parts. Every 

 dunghill of fresh dung throws off a' uaseous ex- 

 halation a verv short time after it is put together; 

 ;ind the quantity thus thrown of!' is regulated by 

 the state of the atrnosphere. But, this exhalation 

 does not consist of the valuable gases; it is a 

 mere evaporation of the water contained in the 

 dunir. The same hot haze may be seen f^icker- 

 iner over a fallow field in a sunny day in summer. 

 Nobodv could with truth assert, that this haze 

 arises from the disenjiagement of the cases in the 

 dung which had previously been inserted into the 

 soil, when it is clearly nothing more than the eva- 

 poratnn of the moisture in the soil. To say, 

 therefore, the first stage of decomposition in a 

 dunghill throws off "the most valuable and the 

 most efficient" parts of the dung, is just to say 

 the vapor of water is the most valuable part 

 of dung. 



'It is true, were the fermentation continued after 

 all the water in the dung was evaporated, a con- 

 sidertible increase of temperature, would ensue; 

 and when the texture of the fibrous portions of the 

 manure began to decompose, there would be an 

 evolution of valuable gases. Direct experimenta 



*N^o. xxiii. pp. 617 to 624. The discoveries alluded 

 to. relate to a substance which chemists call Hvmin, 

 which is said to exist in all soils, and to be formed of 

 carbon and hydrogen. The iJuwiC aorf is composed 

 of huinin and oxygen, and its properties enable it to 

 combine with liine. potass, ammonia, and many sub- 

 stances found in soils and mannrfs, and render them 

 easy to be dissolved in water, which could not be done 

 in their separate state. 



