78 



MAN 



THE UNIVERSAL HERtUL; 



MAN 



calcareous marl, are most advantageously-applied to them. - 

 Bogs, or Boggy Soils, must be first drained ; and then the 

 nature of the soil being explored, an appropriate manure must 

 be applied. In general they should be burned, and then 

 covered with limestone, gravel, or lime mixed with coarse 

 sand or gravel, because they are usually of a clayey nature ; 

 if they are more sandy, lime may answer well, or calcareous 

 marl. If their tipper parts contain a sufficiency of the car- 

 bonaceous principle, as it often happens, they need not be 

 burned. For all moorish and cold soils, gravel, road dirt, 

 small stones, coal ashes, soaper's ashes, hog-dung, &c. are 

 good. But in cold wet lands, no manure can be effectual 

 without draining. Heathy Soils, should first be burned, to 

 destroy the heath, and increase the carbonaceous principle. 

 Lime also will destroy heath. Limestone gravel is the fittest 

 manure, when the soil is clayey; lime, when it is gravelly. 

 Gypsum also answers remarkably well when the soil is dry. 

 Manure is usually applied in three different ways. The 

 first and most common is that of ploughing it in, and thus 

 mixing it with the whole soil. This is the best system, where 

 it is necessary to enrich the field for a succession of exhaust- 

 ing crops ; and also in strong heavy lands, which require to 

 have their parts separated as much as possible ; which effect 

 is produced by nothing better than by ploughing in long dung 

 or green crops. The second is spreading or scattering the 

 manure upon young crops, which is called top-dressing or 

 hand-dressing. This mode is confined to particular sub- 

 stances, as soot, rape cake, pigeon's dung, ashes, &c. and 

 has been found to answer, especially with crops which 

 tiller, as wheat and barley. Even dung well rotted, and 

 made into a compost with earth, lime, or other active sub- 

 stajices, may be thus employed, and being applied on the 

 surface, and at a season when the crop stands most in need 

 of it, a much less quantity of manure will be sufficient; but 

 then it will be of little or no use to succeeding crops, and 

 the expense of preparing it will be greater. When crops are 

 sickly or backward in the spring, top-dressings are certainly 

 of great use, except the season should prove uncommonly 

 dry. The third way of applying manure, is laying it into 

 drills, and sowing the crop upon it. This is used only for 

 particular crops, as potatoes, turnips, &c. which thus receive 

 the whole benefit of the manure in all stages of their growth. 

 Dung, is the most common, general, and upon the whole 

 the most efficacious of all manures. It promotes vegetation, 

 by increasing the vegetable food, by enlarging the pasture 

 of plants, by communicating to the soil a power of attracting 

 the vegetable food from the air, and by prepaiing the vege- 

 table food for the nourishment of plants. It is properly the 

 excrement of animals ; but is used also to signify all rotten 

 vegetables, when used as manures. Dung of quadrupeds is the 

 most common manure in use Stable-dung is used either fresh 

 or putrified ; the first is called long, the second short dung. 

 It abounds in animal matter, easily putrifies, and serves to 

 hasten the decay of other dead vegetable substances. Its 

 fermentation is promoted by frequent turning and exposure 

 to the air: yet it should be covered, to prevent water from 

 carrying off most of its important ingredients : or. at least, the 

 water that imbibes them should not be lost. Farm-yard-dung 

 consists of various vegetables, chiefly straw, sometimes weeds, 

 leaves, fern, &c. impregnated with animal matter : it fer- 

 ments more slowly than stable-dung, should be piled ill heaps, 

 and stirred from time to time: fern in particular putrifies very 

 slowly. Manar/ement. When any considerable quantity of 

 stable or yard dung, or other mixture of animal and vegetable 

 substances, is collected together in a heap, and ferments; 

 this process is completed, if the mass be examined, we 



find that the vegetables, of which it was originally com- 

 pounded, are decomposed, and in a situation to nourish new 

 plants. The more completely therefore these substances are 

 submitted to the process of fermentation, the more beneficial 

 will be their effects upon the soil. Hence it is an object of 

 the first importance to farmers to have their dunghills so situ- 

 ated and constructed, as to promote their fermentation, and 

 retain all the useful parts of them. These circumstances 

 have been very little attended to; the greater part of dung- 

 hills being either placed in hollows, and surrounded with 

 water, which effectually checks fermentation by chilling them ; 

 or upon declivities, where every drop of water runs away: 

 cattle are allowed to spread it by trampling, weeds to exhaust 

 it, and carts and waggons are driven over it. Thus the mid- 

 dle, from being hard pressed, will be imperfectly fermented; 

 and the sides, from being scattered about and dried, will not 

 be fermented at all, but in a condition little better than dry 

 straw. To promote fermentation in dung, air and moisture 

 are necessary. It is well known to gardeners, that in making 

 hot-beds, by laying the dung lightly in heaps, and watering it 

 gently, fermentation is immediately brought on ; and that 

 hot-bed dung is as completely fermented in a fortnight, as 

 that in a farm-yard generally is in six or eight months. The 

 farmer should imitate this practice as nearly as the nature of 

 his situation will admit; and instead of having his dunghill 

 in the yard, and allowing carts, cattle, &c. to disturb it, he 

 should place it in some distinct situation, convenient for his 

 offices, where the urine may be kept with it, or else run into 

 a receptacle, whence it may be thrown back into the dung to 

 enrich it and promote the fermentation, or be carried off in 

 carts to manure his land. When dung is taken to the dung- 

 hill, it should not be driven over the heap, as is commonly 

 practised; because the feet of the horses and the weight of 

 the carriage will press it so hard as to exclude the air, and 

 thereby prevent the fermentation : when the quantity also is 

 considerable, the horses are strained and the harness damaged 

 by the exertions necessary to drag a loaded carriage over 

 a hill of such loose materials. Every load ought therefore to 

 be laid down by the side of the dunghill, at least after the 

 woik has made such progress as to render passing over it a 

 matter of difficulty, and afterwards thrown up lightly with a 

 fork ; the labour of which is trifling, compared with the advan- 

 tage resulting from it. If dung laid up in this manner con- 

 tain a sufficient proportion of moisture, it will immediately 

 begin to ferment; if therefore it be too dry, it should be 

 watered, and in summer this will frequently be found neces- 

 sary : it will thus be completely fermented in six or seven 

 weeks, and will be more valuable by half than that made in 

 the common slovenly manner. The situation best calculated 

 for a dunghill is that which is nearest to a level, with a bot- 

 tom capable of retaining moisture, and covered with a shed. 

 If the whole be enclosed with a wall, except an open space 

 at one end for carting away the dung-, it will be a great 

 improvement. The wall on the south side should be of such 

 a height as entirely to prevent the sun's rays from reaching 

 the duna;; on the other three sides, six feet high from the 

 ground will be sufficient. The roof may be thatched, and 

 supported on pillars. If the bottom be not clay or chalk 

 naturally, it must be laid with one of those substances, and 

 the upper part should be paved with broad flags or common 

 paving-stones. At the end opposite to the opening, a reservoir 

 may be dug to receive the moisture; it should be water-tight, 

 and a pump should be put into it to draw off the moisture 

 daily. This may be thrown back on the dung-heap, or 

 drawn into a barrel on a cart, and either spread immediately 

 on the land, or mixed with other substances in a compost. 



