MAN 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



MAN 



87 



in length, laying them up in a ridge, so that the sun and air 

 may more easily penetrate through it; and as these composts j 

 should, if possible, be made a year before they are used, they ' 

 hould be frequently turned over; which will prevent the 

 growth of weeds, and expose every part of the heap equally 

 to the sun and air: and the more they are exposed to the 

 influence of these, the better they will be prepared for vege- 

 tation. Field Composts, are usually made, by mixing various 

 substances with stable or yard dung : and hence in some 

 counties they are called Mixens. The most common materials 

 for this purpose are, turf pared from waste places, virgin earth, 

 peat earth, lime, the scourings of brooks, ponds, and ditches, 

 weeds, rubbish of buildings, coal-ashes, &c. That dung 

 alone, properly managed and applied, is a most valuable 

 manure, is unquestionable; yet it is not equally useful in 

 all soils and situations. It is much better calculated for active 

 than inactive soils. On limestone, chalk, &c. it meets with 

 abundance of active materials ; but upon clays, deep loams, 

 &c. it operates best in conjunction with lime, or some other 

 stimulating substance. When dung is intended for a compost, 

 no attempt should be made to add a large quantity of lime, 

 earth, &c. till it is properly fermented ; every addition of this 

 kind checking the fermentation. The lime, earth, &c. should 

 be added after the fermentation is finished ; and the whole 

 then carefully mixed and laid up together. In a few days, a 

 second fermentation will come on; and if the mixture has 

 been properly turned over, and thoroughly incorporated, it 

 will be fit for use in a month or six weeks. Some judgment 

 and attention will be requisite, with regard to the quantity of 

 lime and other active principles employed : for if the quantity 

 employed be small, their action upon the rich substances in 

 the dung will be partial and imperfect; and if too great, a 

 considerable loss may be sustained by their over-action. If 

 the quantity of earth also be such as to press the dung too 

 hard, the air will be excluded, and the second fermentation 

 b<! impeded or prevented. It is certainly a right method to 

 lay, a good coat of earth as a foundation for the dunghill, 

 into which the moisture of the dung may soak down: and it 

 is no bad way to make a heap of such substances as can be 

 readily obtained, apart from the dung ; and to throw the 

 moisture of the dunghill, and the urine of the cattle, over it. 

 The following is a good method of making a compost : in a 

 field conveniently situated, plough and harrow a head-land, 

 till the soil is well divided and in fine tilth ; then take a cart- 

 load, or forty bushels of lime, fresh from the kiln, and place 

 it in little heaps, about a bushel in each, along the middle of 

 the head-land, at four feet distance from each other : cover 

 the heaps with four or five times their quantity of pulverized 

 earth, and pat it down close with the back of a shovel, so as 

 to exclude both rain and air. In a few days the moisture of 

 the earth will have dissolved the lime, and reduced it to a 

 powder. If the heaps have any fissures in them, they should 

 from time to time be filled up, by having more earth thrown 

 upon them, and patted down close. When the lime is per- 

 fectly reduced to a powder, that and the earth must be chopped 

 down with a spade, and intimately blended together. This 

 is most conveniently done, in the form of a long bank or 

 ridge ; in the middle of which, a large furrow or opening 

 must be made, sufficient to receive five cart-loads, of forty 

 bushels each, of good spit dung; when the earth and lime 

 must be thrown over the dung, so as to cover the whole. In 

 this manner it must lie some months, or till the dung is in a 

 state of dissolution ; when it must be turned over again, well 

 mixed, and formed into a heap or clamp, to be kept for use. 

 Earth, lime, and dung, thus managed, constitute an unctuous 

 mass, of great fertility. An effectual mode of raising a large 



VOL. II. '.1. 



quantity of compost manure is, to bed the farm-yard about 

 two feet deep with earth ; and on this, to cleanse the stables, 

 cow-houses, hog-sties, &c. and to move the cribs, in which 

 loose cattle are fed with straw, about it. This bed of earth 

 will retain the urine; so that when the whole is mixed toge- 

 ther, it will all be nearly of equal goodness, and admirably 

 adapted to gravelly and loose soils in general; through which 

 the essence of dung alone will be washed in one season: a 

 top-dressing of soot, pigeons'-dung, &c. will last but one crop; 

 and very rotten pure dung is little better. Another method 

 of making compost dunghills is, by making them into clamps. 

 Make a layer of hedge-earth, from a grubbed border, two 

 feet deep, and about twelve feet square, in the beginning of 

 November : the quantity of earth will be about twenty-six 

 loads, of sixteen bushels each : on this clean all the yards 

 and sheds. The yard, not being bedded with earth, should 

 be well littered, to soak up the urine, and to be made into 

 dung by the hogs and loose cattle : this may be cleaned once 

 a fortnight, and the sheds once a week ; and piled regularly 

 on the foundation of earth, until the heap is about seven feet 

 high ; and when one clamp is thus filled up, another foun- 

 dation of earth may be laid adjoining. In order to enrich 

 the compost, the flowings of the heap should be prevented 

 from running off, and thrown up occasionally on the heap. 

 By thus piling the compost in clamps, it will be in very good 

 order for arable land early in the spring: which will not be 

 the case, if it be left to be trodden flat over the whole yard, 

 and every particle to be washed by the rain. Fermentation 

 goes on much quicker in this method ; and it would be better 

 still, if the heap were made under a roof, to keep off all 

 moisture but what is thrown up. Another advantage of this 

 method is, that any part of the compost may be used, by 

 taking a division of the hill that has been the longest finished. 

 Where there is a deficiency of materials for making good 

 composts proper for the soil, in many cases a mixture of dif- 

 ferent soils may answer the purpose. Thus, where clay pre- 

 dominates, the addition of sand, where it is happily within 

 reach, is often sufficient to ensure fertility; and where sand 

 prevails, the addition of clay or chalk will answer the 

 same purpose. Gravel enriches peat-moss ; and that in 

 return improves gravel. The farmer, therefore, should search 

 every where above ground, and below, for such substances as 

 may improve his several soils, by a due mixture. TOP- 

 DRESSINGS, answer particularly well on crops that tiller, as 

 Wheat and Barley ; and when these are sickly and backward 

 in the spring, in consequence of a bad seed-time, immoderate 

 wet, severe frosts, and other causes, help them prodigiously, 

 by quickening their vegetation; and thus enabling them to 

 cover the soil from the ensuing drought of summer. They 

 are peculiarly applicable to poor, light, sandy and gravelly, 

 or limestone lands. The advocates for top-dressings, in pre- 

 ference to ploughing in manure, assert, that when a consider- 

 able quantity of dung is laid upon land, and mixed with the 

 whole soil, a great proportion of its richest salts may be car- 

 ried down by rains ; and not only be lost to the present crop, 

 but if the sub-soil be of a loose and porous nature, will very 

 soon escape beneath the reach of the plough ; whereas, if 

 stable-dung, and other enriching manures, were mixed with 

 lime, or other active substances, into a compost, and thus 

 employed as a top-dressing, a much smaller quantity than it 

 usually applied might probably be found sufficient. By thus 

 laying manures upon or near the surface, they sink by slow 

 degrees ; their beneficial effects are exerted upon the crop in 

 their passage downwards ; and very little, if any, of the fer- 

 tilizing parts penetrate beyond where they are useful. Top- 

 dressings, however, are frequently attended with great expense: 

 



