1S3S] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



643 



As ditl'erent manures contain different propor- 

 tions of the elcnienis necessary to vegeiailon. so 



they require a ciillercnt treainient to enable lliem 



to produce their lull eliects in agriculture. I shall 



therefore describe in detail the pro|)erties and 



nature ol' the manures in common use, and frive 



some general views respecting the best modes ol 



preserving and applying them. 



All green sueculeiit plants contain saccharine or j an empyreumatic and slightly sour taste; tl 



mucilaginous matter, with woody fibre, and readily cuniained sea salt, carbonate of soda, and 



ferment. They cannot, therelbre, it" intended lor 



manure, be useil too soon after their death. 



When green crops are to be employed (or enrich- 

 ing a soil, they should be ploughed in, if it be 



possible, when ni flower, or at the time the flower 



Rs beginning to appear; for it is at this period that 



they contain the largest quantity of easily soluble 



matter, and that their leaves are most active in 



Ibrming nutritive matter. Green crops, pond 



weeds, the paring of hedges or di(ches, or any kind 

 of fresh vegetable matter, require no preparation 



to fit them tor manure. The decomposition slowly 

 proceeds beneath the soil ; the soluble matters are 

 gradually dissolved, and the slight fermentation 

 that goes on, checked by the want of a li^ee com- 

 munication of air, tends to render the woody fibre 

 soluble without occasioning the rapid dissipation of 

 elastic matter. 



When old pastures are broken up and made 

 arable, not only has the soil been enriched by the 

 death and slow decay of the plants which have 

 lelt soluble matters in the soil ; but the leaves and 

 roots of the grasses living at the time and occupy- 

 ing so large a part ofihesurlace, aflbrd saccharine, 

 mucilaginous, and extractive matters, which be- 

 come immediately the food of the crop, and the 

 gradual decomposition aflbrds a supply lor succes- 

 sive years. 



^.ape cake, which is used with great success as 

 a manure, contains a large quantity of mucilage, 

 some albuminous matter, and a small quantity of 

 oil. This manure should be used recent, and kept 

 as dry as possible belbre it is applied. It Ibrms an 

 excellent dressing for turnip crops; and is most 

 economically applied by being thrown into the 

 soil at the same time with the seed. Whoever 

 wishes to see this practice in its highest degree ol 

 perlection, should attend Mr, Coke's annual sheep- 

 shearing at Plolkham. 



Malt dust consists chiefly of the infant radicle 

 separated trom the grain. I have never made any 

 experiment upon this manure; but liiere is great 

 reason to suppose it must contain saccharine mat- 

 ter; and this will account ibr it powerful efiects. 

 Like rape cake, it should be used as dry as possi- 

 ble, and its lermentation prevented. 



Linseed cake is too valuble as a food for cattle 

 to be much employed as a manure ; the analysis of 

 linseed was relerred to in the third lecture. The 

 water in which flax and hemp are steeped for the 

 purpose of obtaining the pure vegetable fibre, has 

 considerable fertilizing powers. It appears to 

 contain a substance analogous to albumen, and 

 hkewise much vegetable extractive matter, it pu- 

 trefies very readily. A certain degree of ferment- 

 ation is absolutely necessary to obtain the flax and 

 hemp in a proper state ; the water to which they 

 have been exposed should therefore be used as a 

 manure as soon as the vegetable fibre is removed 

 from it. 

 Sea weeds, consisting of diflerent species of fuci. 



alga?, and confervfe, are much used as a manure on 

 the sea-coasts of Britain and Ireland. Uy digest- 

 ing the common fucus, which is the eea-weed 

 usually most abundanton the coast, in boilinf wa- 

 ter, I obtained from it one-eighth ofa gelatinous sub- 

 si anre which had characters similar to mucilage. 

 A quaiiiiiy distilled gave nearly tour-fifths of"lts 

 weight of water, but no ammonia ; the water had 



le ashes 

 carbon- 

 aceous matter. The gaseous matter aflbrded was 

 small in quantity, principally carbonic acid and 

 gaseous oxide of carbon, with a little hydro-car- 

 bonale. This manure is transient in this effects, 

 and does not last for more than a swingle crop, 

 which is easily accounted for from the large quan- 

 tity of water, or the elements of water, it contains, 

 It decays without producing heat when exposed to 

 the atmosphere, and seems as it were to melt down 

 and dissolve away, I have seen a large heap 

 entirely destroyed in less than two years, nothing 

 remaining but a little black fibrous matter. 



I suffered some of the firmest part of a fucus to 

 remain in a close jar containing atmospheric air for 

 a fortnight : in this time it had become very much 

 shrivelled; the sides of the jar were lined with 

 dew. The air examined was found to have lost 

 oxygen, and contained carbonic acid gas. 



Sea- weed is sometimes suffered to ferment before 

 it IS used; but this process seems wholly unne- 

 cessary, tor there is no fibrous matter rendered 

 soluble in the process, and a part of the manure is 

 lost. 



The best farmers in the west of England use it 

 as fresh as it can be procured ; and the practical 

 results of this mode of applying it are exactly con- 

 formable to the theory of" its operation. The car- 

 bonic acid formed by its incipient fermentation 

 must be partly dissolved by the water set free in 

 the same process; and thus become capable of 

 absorption by the roots of plants. 



The effects of the sea-weed as manure must 

 principally depend upon this carbonic acid, and 

 upon the soluble mucilage the weed contains; and 

 I found that some fucus which had fermented so 

 as to have lost about half its weight, afforded less 

 than ,\of mucilaginous matter; from which it may 

 be fairfy concluded that some of this substance is 

 destroyed in fermentation. 



Dry straw ol wheat, oats, barley, beans and peas, 

 and spoiled hay, or any other similar kind of dry 

 vegetable matter, is, in all cases, useful manure. 

 In general, such substances are made to ferment 

 before they are employed, though it may bedoubted 

 whether the practice should be indiscriminately 

 adopted. 



From 400 grains of dry barley straw I obtained 

 eight grains of mattersoluble in water, which had 

 a brown color, and tasted like mucilage. From 

 400 gi^ains of wheaten straw I obtained five grains 

 of a similar substance. 



There can be no doubt that the straw of differ- 

 ent crops immediately ploughed into the ground 

 affords nourishment to plants ; but there is an ob- 

 jection to this method of using straw, from the diffi- 

 culty of burying long straw, and from its rendering 

 the husbandry foul. 



When straw is made to ferment, it becoines a 

 more manageable manure; but there is Mkewise on 

 the whole a great loss of nutritive matter. More 

 manure is perhap? supplied Ibr a single crop ; but 



