MAN 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



MAN 



79 



Application. Dung is applied indiscriminately upon all soils, 

 at almost any season, and for every crop. Of all manures 

 commonly in use, none can be considered as a more imme- 

 diate food for plants; and when applied to vegetables in a 

 growing state, they immediately begin to thrive. On this 

 theory, it seems absurd that great quantities of rich dung 

 should be laid upon the fallows at the end of autumn, and 

 still worse about Midsummer, there to remain till the ensuing 

 spring before it can be of any use to the plants: for if the 

 fallow be sown with wheat, or any other winter crop, the 

 growth of the plants being stationary, they need little nou- 

 rishment; in the mean time, the salts contained in the dung, 

 after having been spread abroad a month, or perhaps six 

 weeks, dissolving readily in water, are carried off by the win- 

 ter rains; and when the spring arrives, and the plants begin to 

 vegetate, a great part of what was destined for their nourish- 

 ment has been washed away and lost : where fallows have 

 been well wrought, and the soil thus completely reduced, 

 mixing it with dung in that state prevents it from acquiring 

 a sufficient degree of compactness to shelter the roots of the 

 plants, especially if the soil be naturally of a light open tex- 

 ture, and the dung full of half-rotted straw, as is com- 

 monly the case. The operation of the winter's frost renders 

 it still looser, so that in spring it is nearly in the state of a 

 mole-hill ; the baneful effects of which, to a wheat crop, are 

 obvious. Now, were a portion at least of the dung withheld 

 till the spring, the land would be more compact, the plants 

 less liable to be thrown out of the ground by frost, and the 

 dung being applied as a top-dressing at the time when vege- 

 tation was commencing, the useful parts of the dung would 

 be taken up by the plants, every time il was moistened, as 

 the crop in its progressive growth most wanted it. In this 

 mode of application no part of the dung would be lost, and 

 a less quantity being required for the dressing, three times 

 the quantity of the land might be dressed annually; and 

 being applied in a quantity sufficient only for the nourishment 

 of the crop, the plants are fed in the same manner as the 

 animal body, every small dose operating like a meal. Some 

 are of opinion that the first rank quality of dung is highly 

 beneficial, and its principal virtue. Mr. Belcher, on the con- 

 trary, is inclined to think that it is more or less injurious; 

 greatly so in horse-dung, which is evidently unfit for plants 

 when new. In his opinion, the best mode of using all dung, 

 except in compost, on cold stiff ground especially, is to carry 

 it on rough, and to fallow that and the soil together: whereby, 

 at the same time that they are incorporated, the seeds of 

 weeds are forced into vegetation, and completely destroyed. 

 The common practice is to set the dung upon the land in 

 small heaps or hillocks, and to spread it by a man standing 

 on the ground. In some of the midland counties, the pre- 

 vailing custom is to spread it out of the carriage, as it is 

 brought into the field, by a man or men standing in the 

 carriage. Dung should never be moved in summer. The 

 immediate action of the sun's rays exhausts it of its moisture ; 

 and it is an erroneus idea that this evaporation carries 

 off merely aqueous particles, for the salts, the oils rendered 

 miscible with water by alkaline salts or calcareous earth, 

 and the inflammable air, are all dissipated with the water. To 

 turn a dunghill over, then to '.hrow it into carts, exposed in 

 heaps, and to spread it a second time in summer, is to give 

 the sun a power of nearly exhausting its virtues. A Hert- 

 fordshire farmer, on the contrary, never carries dung out by 

 choice in winter, thinking that the rains, &c. damage it 

 much ; but in summer he docs not think its being exposed to 

 the sun a detriment, supposing the heat to exhale only the 

 watery particles. He has found one load laid on at mid- 

 VOL. ii. 72. 



summer as good as two or three at Christmas. The fresher 

 the dung is used, the better he thinks it for any crop, even 

 for grass, provided it be laid on early in autumn. He has 

 found long dung, of only one or two months old, to be better, 

 load for load, than black spit dung, for Turnips. In forming 

 a dunghill, he says, the dung will not rot if the carts drive 

 on to it; but if the dung be shot out of the carts at the side 

 of the hill, and then thrown up, without any trampling, it will 

 rot much sooner and better. This also is the Norfolk prac- 

 tice. At whatever time the dung is carried on the land, it 

 should be spread, and ploughed in as soon as possible. It is 

 said to be a wrong practice to lay dung upon Clover-leys in 

 autumn; for if the field has to remain another year in grass, 

 not only a part of the dung is washed away by the winter 

 rains, but the remainder injures the plants; it being well 

 ascertained that the action of dung upon broad Clover, when 

 the plants are not in a growing state, is fatal to them. But 

 in the spring, a light top-dressing of dung is highly useful to 

 broad Clover, though soot is preferable. If the Clover-ley 

 is to be ploughed for Wheat, and dung be laid on, if the 

 grass crop has been good, the furrow will be turned over 

 entire, and the dung laid flat under it; and as the roots of 

 the Wheat must penetrate through the sod before it can reach 

 the dung, little benefit can be expected from it, allowing the 

 qualities of the dung to remain unimpaired : but in this case 

 the loss from the winter rains will be greater than when 

 dung is laid on fallow ; for these being incorporated with the 

 soil, a part of the salts will be entangled with the earth; but 

 upon ley, it is either laid in the bottom of the furrow, or, if 

 the sod be set on edge, it remains crammed into the inter- 

 spaces through which the whole of the rain passes. When- 

 ever Wheat therefore is sown upon ley, the dung ought to-be 

 used as a top-dressing in the spring, when every part of the 

 crop will have the benefit of it; and the harrows having 

 loosened the top of the furrow, so that the moisture of the 

 dung will readily enter the land, no part of the dung will be 

 lost. If the ley is to be ploughed for Oats, provided the land 

 was well laid down, there is no occasion for dung; but if the 

 land be poor, and dung is required, it cannot be employed 

 in any way so useful as in the form of a top-dressing at the 

 time when the seed is sown. Perhaps there is no way in 

 which dung is used, where its effects are so certain and visible 

 as upon Potatoes and Turnips. For Potatoes, it is laid on 

 when the spring is pretty far advanced, after which there are 

 few heavy rains; of course the strength of the dung is not 

 impaired by washing, and the crop is left in quiet possession 

 of the whole of its fertilizing powers. For Turnips, the case 

 is nearly the same; indeed the advantage is still greater, 

 dung not being laid upon Turnip land sooner than June, after 

 which there is seldom much wet weather till autumn, and by 

 that time the crop is in full vigour. As to laying dung upon 

 meadows, farmers differ in opinion: some preferring the spring 

 for producing an early vegetation and a plentiful crop; others 

 thinking, that though dressings of soot and fine ashes at that 

 season are of much use, yet that dung ought to be laid on at 

 the end of autumn, not to taint the juices of the ensuing 

 crop. It is thought to be a good practice by some, to spread 

 the dung as soon as the hay is cleared. If laid on in the 

 winter, or early in the spring, the frost will take effect upon 

 the manure before the grass can reap any advantage; and 

 the rains coming whilst the manure is exposed on the surface, 

 washes away its virtues before vegetation is awakened by the 

 sun. But in July, if there be any showers, the quick growth 

 of the after-grass will shelter and protect the manure; and 

 nothing is to be feared but a severe drought. In this case, 

 however, the after-growth should be left through winter to 



