1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



561 



and not exposed to contact with the atmosphere 

 by repeated ploughings. When used alone, it 

 has, however, been considered, in most instances, 

 as nearly worthless;* and the most advantageous 

 mode of employing it, is to form it into a compost 

 with the other contents of the farm-yard. It has 

 also been thought that the dung of milch cows is 

 inferior to that of oxen;t but this can only be at- 

 tributed to their yield of milk, which probably de- 

 prives it of some portion of its richness, and when 

 they are dried off and fattened, there is no percep- 

 tible difference. 



Sheep-dung decomposes quickly when it is moist 

 and compactly heaped together; but when dry and 

 dispersed, its decomposilion is slow and imperfect. 

 Its effect upon the soil is soon dissipated, and is 

 generally exhausted after a second crop. Much 

 ammonia is disengaged from the excrements, and 

 more especially from the urine of sheep, and this 

 renders their manure particularly valuable upon 

 soils which contain insoluble mould. That which 

 is found on the floor of sheep-cotes, when left un- 

 disturbed, is of two qualities — that of the upper 

 layer, which is occasionally renewed with fresh 

 litter, being strawy, dry, and not fermented; while, 

 on the contrary, that of the under layer is moist, 

 clammy, and fit for use. When the dung is re- 

 moved, care should therefore be taken to mix 

 both layers, so that they may be equally decom- 

 posed; and, when thus prepared, the manure 

 should be spread sparingly upon the land, if used 

 for corn crops, or it is apt. to make them run to 

 straw: but upon cold, sour soils, this unfermented 

 dung may be used in large quantities with consid- 

 erable advantage. The most usual way of pro- 

 curing it, however, is by foIding,under which head 

 it will be separately treated when we come to the 

 subject of sheep. Here, thereibre, it is only ne- 

 cessary to remark, that it appears, from an expe- 

 riment on record, that 134 ewes and wethers, 

 with 30 lambs, were penned during six weeks in a 

 sheep-cote, and littered with one load of straw per 

 week, which produced 28 large loads of dung: 

 thus — 



£ s. d. 

 Valuing the dung at 7s. 6d. per load 10 10 



Straw, at 69 cwt. 1 qr. 20 lbs. at 20s. per 



ton, or about 3 10 



this would leave £14 for the manure. But. these 

 sheep consumed the produce of two acres of 

 drawn turnips; in which time, according to all 

 common calculation, they would have folded two 

 acres, without the expense of either taking up the 

 crop, or of spreading the dung.f In another 

 standing fold, containing an English acre, the 

 plan adopted was to spread the straw a foot deep, 



*An instance is mentioned in the Essex Report of 

 15 acres having been manured for beans — 6 with horse 

 dung, and 9 with dung from the cow-yard; and that the 

 fiacres produced far more than the 9. — Vol. ii. p. 230. 

 In an experiment made near Grantham, in Lincoln- 

 shire, on a poor dry soil, the manure from a horse-yard, 

 and that from a yard where neat cattle were winter- 

 ed, were used separately for turnips, and the former 

 was found to have greatly the advantage. — Sinclair's 

 Code of Agriculture, 3rd edit., note, p. 214. 



tBedfordshire Report, p. 509. 



t Complete Grazier, 5th edit. p. 258. 



Vol. Ill— 71 



and strew turnips upon one-half of the fold every 

 two or three days alternately, until the litter be- 

 come wet, when it was again covered with fresh 

 straw: the sheep thus lay very dry: and in this 

 manner, it is said, that, in the course of the sea- 

 son, S00 tons of the best manure upon a larm in 

 East Lothian was produced by 308 wethers! The 

 quantity, indeed, appears so very extraordinary aa 

 to seem almost incredible, and had it not been 

 stated on the respectable authority of Sir John 

 Sinclair, we should have hesitated to afford it in- 

 sertion:* but — though not so stated in his account 

 — it is probable that the fold was also deeply bed- 

 ded with sand. 



Swine's dung is, by many persons, considered 

 as the richest of all animal manure, except night- 

 soil; while others view it as being of a cold descrip- 

 tion. It is of a soapy nature, is slow of fermenta- 

 tion, and when laid upon very cold soils, it should 

 be mixed with horse-duns'; for although its stimu- 

 lating powers upon vegetation are very great, yet 

 of itself it does not heat sufficiently to destroy the 

 seeds of weeds. Mr. Malcolm, indeed, says that 

 'he has often seen it applied to land consisting of a 

 shallow loam upon a fine gravel, and land of a 

 sandy nature, in which soils it has filled the 

 ground with weeds, particularly the May-weed; 

 and in a hot season a crop of barley has been en- 

 tirely burnt up.'t Thelossof the barley-crop may 

 however be partly attributed to the dryness of the 

 season, and the foulness of the land to the want of 

 good culture. Any ill-managed manure may be 

 full of the seeds of weeds, and therefore they may 

 be sown with it. But it is a futile charge against 

 any species of manure to say that it encourages 

 weeds; for it is evident that if the land were clean, 

 the same stimulus which acts upon them, would 

 be applied, in like manner, to the crop of grain in- 

 tended to be cultivated. We do not hear such 

 complaints from farmers who drill their corn and 

 effectually hoe the intervals. When, therefore, it 

 is considered that vast quantities of weeds are 

 usually cast into the pig-sties, many of them bear- 

 ing seeds fully ripened, it will be evident that, cau- 

 tion is requisite to destroy their vegetative powers 

 before this manure is laid upon arable lands. On 

 this account, nothing can be more proper than to 

 form a dunghill by a mixture from the pig-sties 

 and the stable. The well-known property of 

 horse-dung to ferment freely, will completely effect 

 what is required, and the compost will be found 

 most valuable. The worth of manure from the 

 pig-sties will however depend much upon the 

 mode in which it is prepared. If the litter be often 

 renewed, and it be kept dry, either by sloping gut- 

 ters, or by means of holes bored in the planking of 

 the floor, then the straw will retain but a small 

 quantity of the urine, and will be productive of 

 little other effect than if it were merely rotten. 

 But if it be allowed to become saturated with the 

 urine, by stopping those drains, and care be taken 

 to preserve the litter in a proper state for decom- 

 posilion, it will ferment rapidly, lose its coldness, 

 and become a very strong manure. The neces- 

 sity of cleanliness in the stye is a consideration 

 apart, which belongs more properly to the future 

 subject, of the treatment of hogs. 



* Husbandry of Scotland, vol. ii. App. p. 47; and 

 Gen. Rep. of Scotland, vol. ii. note p. 511. 



t Survey of Surry, Kent, and Sussex, vol. ii. p. 2T. 



