654 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 11 



lather to prevent the wind from blowing th 

 about. Outside of 



still a naked white sand. But waste 



has been brought to its present state of almost un- 

 exampled fertility, solely by the application offish 

 as a manure. Sir. Greene says he ploughs in 

 about 45 barrels of fish per year, costii 

 ]y from eight to nine dollars, and that ii heshould 

 omit this application of manure for a few years, 

 the soil, which is now of a dark yellow color, 

 would doubtless bleach out again to the quality of 

 white sand, and become unproductive as ever. .'Jo 

 much will good husbandry do towards causing 

 "the desert to blossom like the rose." 



[The remarkable and interesting fact presented 

 above furnishes an example conveying valuable in- 

 struction, and at the same time, an exhibition of gross 

 ignorance, and waste oi the great but fleeting fertility 

 produced. The natural situation ot the land de- 

 scribed, has scarcely its equal in Virginia, Maryland, 

 or North Carolina, unless on some of the bare sands of 

 the sea coast and islands — and there, the rich annual 

 manure of fish (worthless for other purposes,) may be 

 often obtained in great plenty, and perhaps as cheaply 

 as in Rhode Island. But it is not this application of 

 manure, however profitable it may have proved, that 

 we recommend, so much as its preservation, which is 

 entirely disregarded in the practice above stated. In- 

 stead of fruit and hay, as rich harvests might be reap- 

 ed of any other crops not unsuited to a sandy soil, by 

 means of such manurings. But they must be contin- 

 ually repeated — because the almost purely silicious 

 soil has neither chemical nor mechanical power to re- 

 tain the rapidly decomposing animal matter. The 

 crops seize on its products as they are in the act of 

 escaping into the air— and if not so arrested by a grow- 

 ing crop, they would equally escape, and without 

 causing any benefit, would leave the soil as barren and 

 naked as it was at first. No doubt, much the greater 

 part of what was applied has escaped, notwithstanding 

 the benefit produced by the portion arrested. But if, 

 in addition to furnishing this ample supply of animal 

 matter, shells or lime had been applied to make the 

 soil calcareous, it would have seized on and combined 

 chemically with all the putrescent matters now wasted, 

 and the soil would have been made fertile permanently, 

 (if cultivated judiciously afterwards,) without repeat- 

 ing the heavy and costly dressings of fish. 



The waste of animal manure is so great, where it is 

 used alone, and the profit of combining it with calca- 

 reous earth would be so important, that we may be ex- 

 cused for having so often, in different forms, urged this 

 matter on our readers. But if we have annoyed those 

 who read, by such repetitions, we fear it has been clone 

 without any compensating benefit elsewhere: as we 

 doubt whether any of such instruction has been seen, 

 or heard of, by an}' of the persons most interested. 

 Yet we will venture to assert, that if this one effect of 

 the action of calcareous earth was known, and made 

 proper use of, in the limited space where fish or sim- 

 ilar manures can be used, that the profit thence de- 

 rived would surpass all the cost of this journal, incur- 

 red by all its subscribers, from its commencement to 

 tliis time.] 



From British Husbandry . 

 ON PUTRESCENT MANURES. 



[Continued from p. 590, Vol. III.] 

 Long dung. 



Such is the most common practice with the ge- 

 nerality of farmers regarding_/ermc;i/«/ dung; but 

 there is another system of management advocated 

 by some eminent chemists, who recommend that 

 if should be used in afresh state — that is to say, 

 after it has begun to ferment; ibr it is well known 

 that dry vegetable and animal matter cannot be 

 properly made to serve as manure until that pro- 

 cess has commenced. On the effects of the fer- 

 mentation of farm-yard manure, and the. length to 

 which the operation should be carried before it be 

 applied to the soil, there exists indeed an extraor- 

 dinary difference of opinion among the written au- 

 thorities on the subject, and the practice of many 

 eminent farmers is equally at variance. It was 

 long ago asserted, that 'there was good reason to 

 believe, from many facts, that putrefaction was no 

 way necessary to the nutritive power of animal 

 and vegetable matter, but in so far as it diminishes 

 their cohesion, or destroys their texture, and ren- 

 ders them fitter for absorption; and as there is con- 

 siderable waste in gases and ammoniacal and ni- 

 trous salt by their putrefaction, it is of importance 

 not to allow the putrefaction to take place at all 

 where it is not required to break the texture.'* In 

 support of that theory, various other authorities 

 were quoted by the late Secretary to the Board of 

 Agriculture, in the treatise on manures which 

 gained him the Bedlbrdian medal of the Bath 

 and West of England Agricultural Society. f Ma- 

 ny who previously doubted it. have been since per- 

 suaded of its superiority by much practical as well 

 as theoretical evidence then brought forward; to 

 which there has been since added the powerful ar- 

 guments of Sir Humphry Davy, who thus ex- 

 presses himself: — 



'Whoever will refer to the simplest principles of 

 chemistry cannot entertain a doubt on the subject. 

 As soon as dung begins to decompose, it throws 

 off its volatile parts, which are the most valuable 

 and most efficient. Dung which has fermented, 

 so as to become a mere soft cohesive mass, has 

 generally lost from one-third to one-half of its 

 most useful constituent elements; and that it may 

 exert its lull action upon the plant,-and lose none of 

 its nutritive powers, it should evidently be applied 

 much sooner, and long before decomposition has 

 arrived at its ultimate results. 



'A slight incipient fermentation is undoubtedly 

 of use in the dunghill, for by means of it a dispo- 

 sition is brought on in the woody fibre to decay 

 andjaissolve when it is carried to the land, or 

 ploughed into the soil, and woody fibre is always 

 in great excess in the refuse of the farm. Too 

 great a degree, of fermentation is, however, very 

 prejudicial to the composite manure in the dung- 

 hill; it is better that there should be no fermenta- 

 tion at all before the manure is used than that it 

 should be carried too far; for the excess of fermen- 

 tation tends to the destruction and dissipation of 



* Dr. Pearson's Notes on Cullen, quoted by Arthur 

 Young in his treatise on manures, chap. vii. 



t S'-e the Papers of the Society, vol. x. art x. 



