MAN 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



MAN 



85 



careous earth, and, when burnt, afford the best of lime. In 

 a recent state they are of little value as a manure, unless they 

 are broken very small ; but in a decayed state they resemble 

 shell-marl. Upon deep loams and strong clays their operation is 

 similar to chalk or marl; but upon light gravels or sands, little 

 benefit is to be expected from them, unless they are previ- 

 ously made into a compost with dung, clay, or loam. When 

 such lands are in grass, by top-dressings of any of the different 

 earths, their value will be much improved; and the thinner 

 the soil, the greater will be the profit arising from this 

 management. On clay pastures, shells in their simple state 

 will correct acidity, destroy rushes, and render the soil less 

 retentive of moisture. Sea-sand is an excellent manure on a 

 summer fallow for Wheat; but being repeated two or three 

 times, loses much of its good effects, without a change of til- 

 lage. Straw being scarce at Yarmouth, they litter their 

 stables with sea-sand; as the bed becomes soiled or wet, 

 fresh sand is scattered on, until the whole is in a manner 

 saturated with dung and urine; the stall is then cleared, and 

 afresh bed of sand laid in. Thus muck of a singularly excel- 

 leat quality is produced. Sea-sand is much used by florisfe 

 in Holland, where they draw their parterres into ridges before 

 winter, and spread it on the tops of them. Common Sand. 

 This can scarcely be considered as a manure; it is, however, 

 beneficial upon all clays, and other tenacious stiff land, by 

 separating their parts, and destroying their cohesive quality; 

 by which means the sun, air, and frost, penetrate them the 

 better. It is likewise of great use upon rough coarse mea- 

 dows : nothing fines the surface more, or produces a thicker 

 sward of Dutch Clover. The best sand is that which is 

 washed out of highways or from hills, by rains, or that 

 which lies in rivers. Clay. As sands are an improvement 

 to clays, so, on the other hand, clays are an improvement to 

 gravelly and sandy lands; yet we have frequently observed 

 clayey and sandy grounds lying almost contiguous, without 

 any attempt having ever been made to make an experiment 

 on this obvious interchange of soils. It must be remembered 

 that marl and clay are often confounded, and that marling is 

 frequently called claying. The extent to which claying has 

 been carried in the sand districts of Suffolk, is very consider- 

 able. An excellent cultivator near Bury, though not on a 

 very large farm, has carried 140,000 loads. But when this 

 clay is not of a good sort, that is, when it has very little 

 clay in it, but is rather an imperfect hard chalk, there are 

 great doubts how far it answers, and in many cases it has 

 certainly been spread to little or no profit. The usual quan- 

 tity is from sixty to eighty, and sometimes one hundred 

 loads, of thirty-two bushels, to an acre. The duration, and 

 indeed the whole effect, depends much on the course of 

 crops. If the plough be too frequently used, and corn sown 

 too often, it answers badly, and the effect is soon lost; but 

 with management it lasts twenty years. In many cases, a 

 course of fallow and Rye, or light Oats, is converted to fine 

 Barley, Clover, and Wheat, and the produce multiplied twenty- 

 fold; but the cases in which the return has been inadequate 

 are not a few: and on soils that will yield Saintfoin, it is 

 more profitable to cultivate that, than to clay the land for 

 corn. Probably this clay was more properly a'marl. In stiff 

 deep clays, where manure is not to be had in sufficient quan- 

 tities, and fuel is cheap, it may be no bad process to burn 

 some of the clay, which will not only break the cohesion of 

 the soil, and make it more easily cultivated, but will also 

 render it less retentive of moisture, and thus more friendly 

 to vegetation; but upon thin soils, it is evident, any attempt 

 at burning would be highly improper. Ashes, of all kinds 

 of vegetables, are an excellent manure or top-dressing for 



land. Pot-ash, or fixed Vegetable Alkali. In places far 

 removed from the means of improvement, a substitute for 

 common manures, that is of easy carriage, and can be had at 

 a moderate expense, must be valuable. From experiments 

 that have been made, it appears that two hundred pounds 

 of pot-ash are sufficient for an acre of strong land ; for lighter 

 soils, much less is required, if laid on by itself ; on these, 

 however, a compost of this and oil, incorporated with mould, 

 will be the best way of employing it. Upon strong clays, and 

 deep loams, however, it ought always to be applied by itself. 

 When tke expense of carriage is considered, pot-ash will often 

 be found a cheaper manure than lime. In one respect it is 

 superior, for the union of pot-ash with all the different acids 

 form a neutral, which is in some degree useful in vegetation; 

 whereas when lime meets with the vitriolic acid, it is almost 

 entirely lost. Kelp. The operation of kelp depends upon 

 the same principles as lime, pot-ash, &c. Like them, it 

 produces the best effects on deep loams or clays; and the 

 benefit will be still farther increased, if lime be made use of 

 along with it. Kelp should be broken very small with large 

 hammers, or by passing it through a mill. Bleacher 's Ashes, 

 or Refuse, consists principally of the hard undissolved parts 

 of pot-ash, kelp, weed-ash, and barilla. Alone, they are too 

 stimulating, and ought never to be used but with earth, or 

 earth and dung; they answer well with blood, garbage, and 

 putrid animal substances. They are generally laid upon fal- 

 lows for Wheat. The greatest advantage derived from them 

 is upon clay or deep loams. Upon rushy grounds, or coarse 

 wet meadows, they will be found particularly useful. Soap 

 Ashes, which are in some measure the same as the refuse of 

 bleach-fields, are generally made into composts with earth 

 and well-fermented dung, in the proportion of two loads of 

 dung to one of earth; the ashes are then added, in the quan- 

 tity of one load to ten of this mixture, turning and incorpo- 

 rating the whole completely. The quantity necessary for 

 strong clays or deep loams is ten cart-loads to an acre. It" 

 the dung has been well fermented, perhaps the most profit- 

 able way of using this compost, will be as a top-dressing har- 

 rowed in with the grain ; taking care, however, that the 

 caustic quality of the ashes is properly blunted by a sufficient 

 mixture of dung and earth. These ashes, when beaten small, 

 may be made into a rich compost with oil and earth, and 

 used as a top-dressing for young crops. They will destroy 

 slugs and vermin of every description ; and are therefore 

 highly valuable on lands where the early Wheat is injured by 

 the worm. Laid upon grass-lands in the end of autumn, this 

 manure produces a deep verdure during the winter, and an 

 early vigorous vegetation in the spring; it is therefore par- 

 ticularly calculated for cold wet pastures. Peat-ashes. 

 Eight or ten bushels of rich peat-ashes are sufficient to dress 

 an acre. They should be laid on in the spring, before the 

 plants have attained any great size, in wet, or at least cloudy 

 weather. Or, they may be sown and harrowed in with the 

 grain ; in which case a greater quantity will be requisite than 

 when they are used as a top-dressing. They greatly improve 

 grass lands, particularly Clover and Saintfoin; the quantity is 

 from fifteen to twenty-five bushels, according to the condition 

 of the land. Peat-dust, or peat ground to powder, answers 

 equally well with the ashes in the same quantity. It is 

 esteemed the best manure for Asparagus, Onion beds, and 

 flowers, mixed with dung; and destroys thistles, if laid on 

 in sufficient quantity, or repeated. Wood-ashes, are useful 

 as a manure, principally upon account of the pot-ash which 

 they contain. The ashes of fir, pine, &c. have very little of 

 it; but oak, ash, and most of the hard woods, abound in 

 pot-ash. Except upon the strongest and most tenacious soils. 





