6*2 



FARMERS REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



A full stock of swine effect very great service 

 when permitted to run loose in farm-yards where 

 much straw is used; they highly enrich it by their 

 dung and urine, and mechanically promote the de- 

 composition of its woody fibre by (he manner in 

 which they constantly work among ii — breaking 

 it to pieces, and thus rendering it. more, managea- 

 ble on arable land, even when in the earliest stage 

 of decomposition. They have, indeed, been strong- 

 ly recommended by Mr. Blaikie, who advisee, in 

 his very judicious essay on iiirm-yard manure, 

 'that those industrious and useful animals should 

 be attracted to theyard, because they rout the straw 

 and dung about in search of grains of corn, bits 

 of Swedish turnips, and other food, by which 

 means the manure becomes more intimately mix- 

 ed, and is proportionally increased in value.'* 

 Great inconvenience has, however, arisen from al- 

 lowing them to run about, the buildings, through 

 the difficulty of preventing them from getting out, 

 and damaging crops and fences; wherefore many 

 farmers have adopted the plan of having paled 

 yards, with open sheds, lor the sole purpose ol 

 keeping their store pigs. 



Urine, although essentially composed of water, 

 yet contains much of the elements of vegetation 

 in a state of solution peculiar to itself, and is com- 

 bined, through the secretion of the vessels, with 

 carbon and saline matter, from which it derives its 

 nutritive properties, as well as with a large por- 

 tion of ammonia, to which it owes the peculiar 

 emell by which it is distinguished. The various 

 species of urine from different animals differ in 

 their constituents, and the urine of the same at i- 

 mals alters when any material change is made in 

 the nature of the food.f The analysis of its com- 



* Edition of 1823, p. 12. 



f By experiments made by Mr. Brande on 100 parts 

 of the urine of cows, and by Fourcroy and Vauquelin 

 of horses, the following proportions were found in 

 each, viz.: — 



Cows. 



Phosphate of lime 



Muriates of potassa and ammonia 



Sulphate of potassa 



Carbonate of potassa and ammonia 



Urea 



Water 



Horses. 



Carbonate of lime - 



do. of soda 

 Benzoate of do. 

 Muriate of potassa - 

 Urea 

 Water and mucilage 



There is, therefore, more alkaline salts in the urine 

 of horses, which consequently possesses greater ferti- 

 lizing powers than that of oxen; and it has been not 

 inaptly demanded, whether, if these ingredients could 

 be procured cheap, and rendered soluble in water, 

 they might not be so prepared as to become valuable 

 tor saturating dung-hills, or for application in its liquid 

 state? — Leicester Report, note, p. 190. Human urine 

 contains a greater variety of constituents than any 

 other species, and differs in comparison according to 

 the state of the body. All urine is liable to undergo 

 putrefaction very suddenly; but that of carnivorous 

 animals more rapidly than that of granivorous animals. 

 The potash and pearl-ash of commerce are carbonates 

 of potassa, of different degrees of purity. — Sir II. Da- 



position has shown it lobe most favorable to vege- 

 tation when mixed with other excrement, and with 

 straw, or similar substances, because it. occasions 

 their combination, and contributes to their more 

 perfect decomposition, by which they are convert- 

 ed into the species of manure of which we. are 

 treating; and although we confine that manure to 

 straw, or haulm, and to the dung of horses and 

 oxen, both as that of which it is the most general- 

 ly com] osed, and as (bluing and night-soil will be 

 separately considered, it yet includes every other 

 kind of ordure. 



Straw of all kinds, or similar dry vegetable 

 matter, when used as litter, is well known to form 

 a principal ingredient in the composition of farm- 

 yard manure; not perhaps so much by the nour- 

 ishment which it is of itself capable of imparting 

 to the soil, as from the value which it acquires by 

 its absorption of urine, as well as by combining 

 with dung in its different stages of decomposition, 

 and imparting consistence to the. whole mass, 

 which is then carried more regularly through the 

 processes of fermentation and putrefaction, by 

 which it is rendered fit for the purpose for which it 

 is wanted. Nothing, in fact, can be better adapted 

 fin' the mixture than straw; for it would rot with 

 difficulty and imperfectly but for the dung, which 

 brings an accession of the richest materials to the 

 heap, and-there can be no doubt that, when thus 

 combined, it forms the best and the most general- 

 ly useful of all manures, lor every kind of land. 

 All the various sorts of straw and haulm answer 

 the purposes of litter, though opinions vary re- 

 specting its value for that use; some contending 

 that rye straw is the best, while others insist, with 

 more apparent reason, that the straw of wheat 

 absorbs more moisture, and it is supposed to be 

 equal to three times its weight after it has been 

 saturated with urine. 



It was the system of Bakewell, during a part of 

 his life, to convert the whole of the straw into 

 food for his stock, and it was also the opinion of 

 many of his supporters that this mode of consum- 

 ing straw would not only tend considerably to in- 

 crease the number of black cattle, but also to im- 

 prove the quality of manure; for they argued — 

 'that straw is not alone thus rendered fit. Tor the 

 support of live-stock, but that, by being digested 

 and passed through their bodies, it must become a 

 much more highly enriched manure than in the 

 ordinary way of treading and rotting.' Bakewell, 

 however, altered his opinion at a later period of 

 his lile, and the doctrine is certainly questionable; 

 for although it be true that a part of the straw, 

 when eaten, assists the. fermentation of the re- 

 mainder, yet, when partly used as litter, it at once 

 absorbs the urine, which is perhaps of more value, 

 as manure, than straw which has been merely 



vy, Elem. of Jgric. Chem., p. 256. See also the Ana- 

 lysis, by Berzelius, and by W. Henry. M. D., F. R. S., 

 Elem. of Exper. Chem. 10th edit., vol. ii. chap. xiii. 

 sect. v. 



The white globe turnip not only yields a larger 

 quantity of urine, but its effect as a manure upon any 

 crop is less apparent than that of either the yellow 

 Aberdeen or the Swedish. That produced by cut 

 grass is comparatively weak; but the liquid manure 

 from the refuse of distilleries, such as grains and dregs, 

 has been found good. — Quart. Jour, of Jgric, No. xix 

 p. 96. 



