APPLICATION OV MANURES. 



260 



APPLICATION OF MANURES. 



The reader but too probably nauseates at the very word manure! yet what 

 so important ? — and besides, like it or not, the doctor must give the medicine he 

 thinks best suited to the case ; and so we shall continue to give in doses, broken, 

 though they may not always be small, what may seem best suited to the condi- 

 tion of our patients. By the by, when did any one know brokers and merchants 

 to tire of hearing and talking about the rise and fall of produce and of stocks ? 



In the preceding chapter, we have given some striking facts on the subject of 

 draining, from " the Very Reverend Doctor Buckland," and the following is a 

 continuation of his lecture. 



When shall we have lectures on botany, and natural history, and vegetable 

 chemistry, from our country clergy ? 



As the elements of m;mui-e could only act 

 on plants wlieii in a state of solution, it oufzlit 

 never to be iipplied ;is a top-dressing, except 

 in wet weather. It was commou to see ma- 

 nure applied to turnips during the dog-days, 

 when the sky was bright and clear, and not a 

 particle of rain falling. In this case, so far 

 frtim the manure doing any immediate good, 

 its ammonia was speedily evaporated, being 

 extremely volatile, aud pjossed into the atjno- 

 sphere, instead of the roots of jjlauts. In a 

 dry season, if manures were used at all, they 

 ought to be buried in the ground, and not ap- 

 plie-d as a top-dressing ; in rainy sejtsons the 

 virtue of manures descended wiili the rahi- 

 water, to the immediate benefit of the grow- 

 ing plants. There were two advantages to 

 be derived fi'om draining, which were — time 

 and money. He who was always behind- 

 hand could not be a good fanner. The eai'ly 

 farmer takes his commodities early to nwrket 

 from ^vell-tl rained land, which is fit to be 

 worked at almost any time, and has threshed 

 his barley, and converted it into cash, while 

 tlie late fanner's crops are not yet ripe for the 

 harvest. No finn on a wet clay soil can pro- 

 duce half the com it is capable of growing, if 

 thoroughly drained. Hefen-ing to different 

 kinds of manure applied to land after it was 



})repared by drainage for receiving it, the Pro- 

 iessor observed that he need hardly say that 

 the best of all manures was fann-yard dung, 

 though he was sorry to remark the faniu-rs 

 did neither produce or ]>re3erve so much of it 

 as they might easily do. Fann-yard dung 

 was the best of all manures, because it gave 

 back directly to the soil the elements of the 

 plants that had been consumed by cattle as 

 their food. But. besides the manure produced 

 on his own land, the good farmer is obliged 

 to borrow and fetch from a di.-itance the ele- 

 mentary substances of imported aititicial ma- 

 nures. The farmers of the east side of Eng- 

 land "o to London for bone-dust, and to Hol- 

 land for rape-cake and oil-cake. This oil-cake, 

 (557) 



together with straw, is used for the winter 

 food of oxen in their f inn-yards, which are 

 thus annu;illy charged with an abundance of 

 rich manure. There was another kind of ma- 

 nure, which he wished particularly to impress 

 upon the farmer's attention — he alluded to gu- 

 ano. It was, as they knew, the droppings 

 of sea-fowl, accumulated for ages upon islands 

 off' the coasts of Africa and America, and on 

 many islands in the Pacific Ocean. Since its 

 first importation, four yeare only ago,* guano 

 had been used with the greatest success in 

 various parts of the country. It was notorious 

 that experiments made with it during the 

 present year had almost univei-sally failed ; 

 and their failure proved that it ought never to 

 be applied as a top-dressing, except in rainy 

 weather, and vv'hen the plant is in a state of 

 active growth. There were many advantages 

 attending the use of gumio, not the least of 

 which was its portability, aud its power of re- 

 Uiining its properties for many years, if kept 

 di-y and excluded from the air. It was much 

 cheaper now than on its introduction into tliis 

 country, and next year the supply would be 

 such i\3 to reduce its price to half of that 

 charged last year. He knew that no lesS than 

 600 sliips had left Liverpool alone last year to 

 get gu;mo, and they would bring back at least 

 (50,000 tons. Some of the guano sold in this 

 country was adulterated by art, and some by 

 Nature ; but a little precaution on the part of 

 the buyer would j)revent his being imposed 

 upon. He had only to put a tea-spiwniul into 

 a tumbler full of warm water, and to wash 

 and rinse it, whirling it round briskly, when 

 the sand (if any were mixed with it) might 

 be detected at the bottom. The learned Pro- 

 fessor then referred to the night-soil and cloa- 



* The Editor of The Farmers' Library, then Ed- 

 itor of the American Farmer, distributed two barrels 

 of it in Maryland twenty years ago ; and as far back 

 as that told the whole story of Alpacca sheep— their 

 history, uses, value, itc. — with cDgiavicg*. 



