MAN 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



MAN 



soon as it is thrown upon the beach; and experience proves 

 that its greatest value is in that state. If, moreover, more 

 weed is thrown up than is wanted for immediate use, it is an 

 object of importance to preserve its qualities as much as pos- 

 sible. This is best done by making it into a compost, with 

 earth, and a small proportion of lime. If the quantity of earth 

 be great enough to absorb and retain the juices and salt of 

 the sea-weed, the proportion of lime moderate, the whole 

 well incorporated, and protected from heavy rains, it will be 

 found nearly as valuable as in a fresh state. After the com- 

 post is properly mixed, lay it up in the form of a ridge, with 

 a pretty sharp angle at top, covered two or three inches with 

 earth, well beat with the back of a spade, and defended from 

 the rains with straw. This compost will be found a good 

 dressing for young crops of every description, and may be 

 used either at the time of sowing the grain, and harrowed in 

 along with it, or after the plants have made some progress. 

 Upon wheat, it should always be used to the young crop early 

 in the spring; upon rich deep land, it is bad husbandry to lay 

 sea-weed, or indeed any heavy rich manure: lime, chalk, and 

 shells, are the proper substances. This manure seems peculiarly 

 adapted to lands that have been hurt by over-liming: the bad 

 effects of which it will more readily correct, than any other, 

 except oil and animal substances. River Weed. In summer 

 great quantities might be gathered, in lakes, in rivers where 

 the water is deep and has no current, and in all wet ditches. 

 Its effects upon wheat and other grain, as well as upon Tur- 

 nips, Cabbages, and other green crops, are well ascertained. 

 It may be laid on the land green, and ploughed in; or it may 

 be mixed with earth and dung. The best way of preparing it 

 for manure is, to let it lay in small heaps for a day or two, to 

 drain off' the superfluous moisture. It may then be put into 

 large heaps, of three or four cart-loads each, till the ferment- 

 ation is over: each heap should then have three times the 

 quantity of earth or mud mixed with it. Incorporate them 

 well, and let them remain for a week or ten days; turn them, 

 adding at the same time a quantity of hot new-slacked lime. 

 This compost will be ready for use in a month. Other Weeds. 

 Gotten vegetables, of most sorts, will enrich land. Not only 

 the weeds of ponds, lakes, rivers, or ditches, but any other 

 sort of weeds, laid in heaps to rot, will make good manure : 

 such as the weeds which too commonly disgrace the head- 

 lauds and balks of arable lands, commons, &c. the re-fuse of 

 kitchen-gardens, &c. Whenever any weeds are used for 

 manure, they should be cut down as soon as they begin to 

 flower, tor it' they be suffered to stand till their seeds are 

 ripe, the land will be stored with weeds, which cannot easily 

 be destroyed : and some kinds of weeds, if permitted to form 

 their seeds, will perfect them after they are cut down. The 

 surest method, therefore, is to cut them just as they begin to 

 flower, when they are in the greatest vigour, and fuller of 

 juice than when they are farther advanced. In rotting these 

 weeds, it will be proper to mix earth or mud with them, to 

 prevent their taking fire; as they are apt to do, when laid in 

 large heaps. When they are well rotted, they form a solid 

 mass; which will cut like butter, and be very full of oil. 

 Fern mowed whilo it is green and tender, and laid in heaps to 

 rot, will make a good manure : or it may first serve the pur- 

 pose of litter in the stable or yard, and thus increase the 

 quantity of dung. This, with thistles and other large weeds, 

 may be laid in heaps and burnt to great advantage; the ashes 

 being an excllent top-dressing for any crops. MUD, whe- 

 ther from the sea, rivers, or ponds, is an excellent manure, 

 on any soil, with or without lime. Its greatest value is upon 

 thin soils; the fertility of which it increases amaEingly, at the 

 same time adding to the staple of the land. It should not be 



laid on fresh, or as soon as it is dry; but it should be well 

 turned over, and fermented with dung, or mixed with lime, 

 to make the seeds in it vegetate, or to destroy their vegetation. 

 Innumerable seeds fall, or are carried into the water, sink to 

 the bottom; and not being aquatics, if they have much oil in 

 them, are embalmed in the mud for years or ages, to vegetate 

 whenever they shall happen to come within reach of the atmo- 

 sphere, in a proper matrix. It may be dug between hay-time 

 and harvest; and either made into a compost when dry, or, 

 being turned over and levelled, and exposed to a winter's 

 frost, may be dug in spring, and planted with Potatoes. In 

 Cheshire, the soil deposited at the extremity of salt-marshes, 

 commonly known there under the name of Sea-sludge, after 

 it has been grassed over for a few years, is said to be the 

 most productive and lasting of any sort of manure; containing 

 all the strength of marl, and the richness of black dung. - 

 Street Sweepings. This is a mixture of most substances 

 valuable in agriculture, and needs the assistance of ferment- 

 ation less than any of them, to render it fit for use; being 

 made up principally of the offal of houses, dung of horses and 

 cattle, ashes, &c. It may be either ploughed in as dung, 

 or used in the spring, to invigorate wheat that is weak, from 

 not having been sufficiently manured, or from any other cause. 

 It may be employed in general as a top-dressing, or put into 

 the furrow with drilled crops. Road Sweepings. The dung 

 and sand swept up, or dirt shovelled up, on turnpike roads, 

 would make an excellent manure, and at the same time 

 remove a great annoyance to travellers. Where roads are 

 mude with limestone, this manure will be particularly valu- 

 able; and where they are made with flints, it answers for 

 grass land. Rubbish. The backs of ditch-banks, the borders 

 of fences in general, the sides of lanes, and the nooks of 

 yards, which are suffered to remain from generation to gene- 

 ration the nursery of weeds, turned up into ridges to rot the 

 roots, &c. make an excellent manure; as also does the rub- 

 bish of old buildings. Sea-stone walls afford a great quantity 

 of this valuable article; which, from its immediate effect and 

 duration jointly, is considered by some as superior to marl, 

 mould, or even dung itst'lf, especially upon scalds and hot- 

 burning soils. The rubbish of old lath and plaster buildings 

 is incomparable manure for Clover leys,or grass lands, two loads 

 to an acre; and is said to last twenty years. Lime-rubbish 

 is used by gardeners to bottom gravel-walks, to mix with 

 earth for Tulips, &c. and to plant Vines and Figs. Mud or 

 earth walls acquire considerable fertility ; and as they moulder, 

 or fall away, become useful in the compost dunghill. Malt- 

 dust, Comb, or Coombs, is the dust that separates from the 

 malt in the act of drying; and is used as a top-dressing for 

 Bailey, Clover, Turnips, &c. This is reckoned one of the 

 most efficacious manures. Mr. Miller says, it is a great 

 enricher of barren ground, having a natural heat and sweet- 

 ness in it; which imparts to the soil a proper fermentation, 

 especially where grounds are a natural clay, and have con- 

 tracted a sourness and austerity; whether from having long 

 lain unfilled and exposed to the air, or from water having 

 stagnated upon them. Oak Bark, or Tanner's Bark, after 

 the tanners have used it for tanning leather, when laid in a 

 heap and rotted, is an excellent manure, especially for stiff 

 cold land; in which, one load of this manure will improve the 

 ground more, and last longer, than two loads of the richest 

 dungs: and yet it is very common to see large heaps of this 

 remaining for many years in the tanners' yards ; where manure 

 of other kinds is very scarce, and often carried to a great 

 distance. Of late years this has been much used for hot- 

 beds in several parts of England, and is found greatly to 

 excel horse-dung for that purpose; the fermentation being 



