536 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



course of putrefaction, will form about 23 lbs. 

 of carbonate of ammonia, to fix tbe ammonia 

 of which requires 35 lbs. of the sulphuric acid 

 of commerce ; it will, however, be safer to use 

 a smaller quantity, and it may be thrown among 

 the liquid manure with which you soak the 

 heap ; 70 or 80 lbs. per ton of the common green 

 vitriol will answer the same purpose, and as for 

 sulphate of lime (gypsum), which is to a certain 

 extent a fixer of ammonia, it may be well to 

 apply an excess of that, as it baa a value of its 

 own as a manure ; 1 cwt. of it may, therefore, 

 be mixed per ton of the manure. Farm dung 

 should be turned once and mixed with earth 

 shortly after being carted out to the field in this 

 month, and then again three weeks before it is 

 applied : the first turning will cost Id. and the 

 second |d. per cubic yard, measured before 

 turning. 



Liquid manure may be applied either by 

 soaking manure heaps, or it may bo hoarded up 

 in tanks till spring and carted out in water- 

 carts on the land — in the latter case it may be 

 well tojlx the ammonia, which, when putrefy- 

 ing, it contains. And to guide to the econom- 

 ical performance of this, we may mention that 

 17 lbs. of ammonia require about I cwt. of the 

 sslphuric acid of commerce for its fixation, and 

 that the same quantity of sulphuric acid is con- 

 tained in about l:^; cwt. of sulphate of iron. Now, 

 fresh urine, averaging all that is produced from 

 the various animals on the farm, may be con- 

 sidered to contain about 2 lbs. of ammonia in 

 10, or 12 gallons, i. e. in 100 to 120 lbs. : and the 

 horse yields 3 to 5 lbs., the cow 30 to 40 lbs., 

 and the sheep and pig probably 2 or 3 lbs. of 

 urine daily; 



It must not be forgotten that the value of 

 manure depends not only upon its nitrogenous 

 or amraoniacal compounds, but also upon its 

 mineral parts — and it differs greatly in these, 

 according to the food and the age and condi- 

 tion of the animals which produce it. It is be- 

 lieved that the greater value which every farmer 

 recognizes in the dung of cake fed beasts arises 

 chiefly from the greater quantity of phcsphates 

 which it contain.s — tho.se phosphates being con- 

 tained in the food of the cattle. And the great 

 difference in the value of their manure between 

 a full grown halffat ox and a milch cow or a 

 young beast, arises from the latter requiring all 

 the pliosphates in their food, one for the growth 

 of its bones, and the other for the secretion of 

 its milk, while the former, requiring them for 

 neither of these purposes, passed them out in 

 its manure. Manure also depends for .some of 

 its value on its bulk — its influence ou the tex- 

 ture of the soil ; but this, while sometimes bene- 

 ficial, as on clay soils, where it ought to be ap- 

 plied fresh, is sometimes injurious, as on light 

 soils, where, accordingly, it ought to be kept, if 

 this can be done with safety to its volatile in- 

 gredients, till it is rotten and of an unctuous tex- 

 ture. It would be beneficial if the terms on 

 which farmers hold their lands were so modified 

 as to allow of their changing the cattle food pro- 

 duced on their farms for any other kind of cattle 

 food they might prefer — they would then be 

 able to buy or to sell straw according as a stiff 

 or a light soil appeared to them to require a 

 bulky fibrous manure, or one of a more con- 

 densed and less bulky character, and all this 

 would be attended with benefit, not only to 

 themselves but to their landlords also. 



BONE MANURE. 



This is one of the manures which appears not 

 to have attracted the notice, or to have gone as 

 extensively into use it ought to do. 



It would be gratifying to hear from our friends 

 in Montgomery what have been the results of 

 their farther experience, atid to have their opin- 

 ion of its intrinsic value at the prevailing prices, 

 and their estimate of it in comparison with other 

 manures. 



It seems to maintain its ground in England, 

 where the value of all manures has been calcu- 

 lated on the ba.sis of experiments, numerous, va- 

 ried, and exact to a degree that it would seem to 

 be impossible to carry out in our country. 



At a late meeting of a Farmers' Club in Eng- 

 land, a paper on the analysis of the soils of Cam- 

 winick Farm — the property and in the occupa- 

 tion of C. H. T. Hawkins, Esq. — was read by 

 Mr. Karkeck, of Truro. Its object was to prove 

 the durability of bone-dust as a manure for a pe- 

 riod of ten years. It appears that, in 1835, a 

 piece of waste ground was broken from the 

 common, and tilled to turnips, the larger part of 

 whjch was manured with bone-dust, at the rate 



of three quarters to the acre.* In the two fol- 

 lowing years it was successfully cropped with 

 oats, and with the last crop laid down to perma- 

 nent pasture, in which state it has remained ever, 

 since. At the present period, the eftect of the 

 bone-dust can be plainly distinguished — the 

 grass, as far as the eye can reach, having a rich 

 grass sward ; while the adjoining part, where 

 no bone-dust has been applied, has a coarse, 

 sterile appearance : the difference being as great 

 as if a line had been drawn between rich pas- 

 ture and scanty, coarse herbage. This, and a 

 great many other experiments of the same char- 

 acter, made by Mr. Trethcwy. the manager of 

 the estate, amounting altogether to 120 acres, 

 and on all of which the effect of the bone was 

 equally visible, induced the Club to .send a sam- 

 ple of the poil from each part of the field on 

 which the first experiments had been made, to 

 Mr. Hunt, late of Falmouth, and now " Curaor 

 of the Museum of Economic Geology," to be 

 analyzed, in order to ascertain if the bone could 

 be detected at the present time. It should be 



* It should be properly added that the whole of 

 the turnip plant was earned oil" by the tly ; coiiee- 

 quently, Utile or none of the bone-duft vrus- used in 

 that crop. This will partly aecou7it for its evident 

 durability. 



