644 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[x\0. 11 



the land is less improved than it would be, suppos- 

 ing the whole of the vegetable matter could be 

 finely divided and mixed with the soil. 



It is usual to carry straw that can be employed 

 for no other purpose to the dunghill to ferment and 

 decompose, but it is worth experiment, whether it 

 may not be moreeconomicully applied when chop- 

 ped small by a proper machine, and kept dry till it 

 ie ploughed in for the use of a crop. In this case, 

 though it would decompose much more slowly, 

 and produce less effect at first, yet its influence 

 would be much more lasting. 



Mere icoody fibre seems to be the only vegetable 

 matter that requires fermentation to render it nu- 

 tritive to plants. Tanners' spent bark is a sub- 

 stance of this kind. Mr. Young, in his excellent 

 Essay on Manures, which gained him the Bedfbr- 

 dian medal of the Bath Agricultural Society, stales, 

 '■that spent bark seemed rather to injure than as- 

 sist vegetation ;" which he attributes to the as- 

 trigent matter that it contains. But in fact it is 

 freed from all soluble substances, by the opera- 

 tion of water in the tan-pit; and if injurious to 

 vegetation, the efl(2Ct is probably owing to its 

 agency upon water, or to its mechanical eft'ects. It 

 is a substance very absorbent and retentive ofmois- 

 ture, and yet not penetrable by the roots of plants. 

 Inert peaty matter is a substance of the same 

 kind. It remains for years exposed to water and 

 air without undergoing change ; and in this state 

 yields little or no nourishment to plants. 



Woody fibre will not ferment unless some sub- 

 stances are mixed wiih it which act the same part 

 as the mucilage, sugar, and extractive or albumi- 

 nous matters, with which it is usually associated in 

 herbs and succulent vegetables. Lord Meadow- 

 bank has judiciously recommended a mixture of 

 common farm-yard dung for the purpose of bring- 

 ing peas into fijrmentation ; any putrescible or 

 fermentable substance will answer the end ; and 

 the more a substance heats, and the more readily 

 it ferments, the better will it be fitted for the pur- 

 pose. 



Lord Meadowbank states, that one part of dung 

 is sufficient to bring three or four parts of peat into 

 a state in which it is fitted to be applied to land; 

 but of course the quantity must vary according to 

 the nature of the dung and of the peat. In cases 

 in which some living vegetables are mixed with 

 tlie peat, the lermenlaiion will be more readily ef- 

 fected. 



Tanners' spent bark, shavings of wood and 

 sawdust, will prnbiilily require as much dunfj to 

 bring them mto fermentation, as the worst kind of 

 peat. 



Woody fibre may be likewise prepared so as to 

 become a manure by the action of lime. This 

 .^subject I shall discuss in the next lecture, as it fol- 

 lows naturally another series of facts relating to 

 the efiiBcts of lime in the soil. 



It is evident from the analysis of woody fibre 

 by MM. Gay Lussac andThenard, (which shows 

 that it consists principally of the elements of wa- 

 ter and carbon, the carbon being in larger quanti- 

 ty than in the other vegetable compounds), that 

 any process which tends to abstract carbonaceous 

 matter from it must bring it nearer in composition 

 to the soluble principles; and this is done in fer- 

 mentation by the absorption of oxygen and pro- 

 duction of carbonic acid; and a similar effoct, it 

 will be shown, is produced by lirae. 



Wood-ashes imperfectly formed, that is, wood- 

 ashes containing much charcoal, are said to have 

 been used with success as a manure. A part of 

 their effects may be owing to the slow and iiradu- 

 al consun![)tion of the charcoal, which seems ca- 

 pable, under other circumstances than those of ac- 

 tual combustion, of absorbing oxygen so as lo be- 

 come carbonic acid. 



In April, 1803, I inclosed some well burnt char- 

 coal in a tube half filled with pure water, and 

 half with common air; the tube was hermetically 

 sealed. I opened the tube under pure water in 

 the spring of I8U4, at a time when the atmos- 

 pheric temperature and pressure were nearly the 

 same as at the commencement of the experiment. 

 Some water rushed in: and on expelling a little 

 air by heat from the tube, and analyzing it, it was 

 found to contain only seven per cent, of oxygen. 

 The water in the tube, when mixed with lime- 

 water, produced a copious precipitate; so that car- 

 bonic acid had evidently been formed and dis- 

 solved by the water. 



Manures from animal substances, in general, 

 require no chemical preparation to fit them for the 

 soil. The great objeci of the farmer is to blend 

 them with the earthy constituents in a proper 

 state of division, and to prevent their too rapid de- 

 composition. 



The entire parts of the muscles of land animals 

 are not commonly used as a manure, though 

 there are many cases in which such an applica- 

 tion might be easily made. Horses, dogs, sheep, 

 deer, and other quadrupeds that have died acci- 

 dentally, or of disease, after their skins are sepa- 

 rated are often suHered to remain exposed to the 

 air, or immersed in Avater, till they are destroyed 

 by birds or beasts of prey, or entirely decomposed; 

 and in this case most of their organized matter is 

 lost for the land in which they lie, and a conside- 

 rable portion of it employed in giving off noxious 

 gases to the atmosphere. 



By covering dead animals with five or six times 

 their bulk of soil, mixed with one part of lime, 

 and suffering them to remain for a few months, 

 their decomposition would impregnate the soil 

 with soluble matters, so as to render it an excel- 

 lent manure, and by mixing a little fresh quick- 

 lime with it at the time of its removal the disa- 

 greeable effiuvia would be in a great measure de- 

 stroyed; and it might be applied in the same way 

 as any other manure to crops. 



Fish forms a powerful manure, in whatever 

 elate it is applied; but it cannot be ploughed in too 

 fresh, though the quantity should be limited. Mr. 

 Young records an experiment, in which herrings 

 spread over a field and ploughed in for wheat, 

 produced so rank a crop that it was entirely laid 

 before harvest. 



The refuse pilchards in Cornwall are used 

 throughout the county as a manure, with excel- 

 lent effects. They are usually mixed with sand 

 or soil, and sometimes with sea-weed, to prevent 

 them liom raising too luxuriant a crop. The ef- 

 fects are perceived for several years. 



In the fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and 

 Norfolk, the little fish called sticklebacks, are 

 caught in the shallow waters in such quantities, 

 that they form a great article of manure in the 

 land bordering on the fens. 



It is easy to explain the operation of fish as a 

 manure. The skin is principally gelatine; which 



