1835,] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



731 



measure, and twice as much if heaped; or a pro 

 portion ate quantity in weight.* 



On strong soils, farm-yard manure is very com 

 monly applied to a summer-fallow tor wheat; and 

 when that process forms part of the rotation, it is 

 the opinion of most intelligent husbandmen that 

 it can at no time be more profitably employed. 

 The season is then so far advanced as to have af- 

 forded time for the preparation of the winter dung, 

 which, on clay-land, where green crops are not ge- 

 nerally grown, and the practice of summer soiling 

 is not adopted, is otherwise a difficult matter; but 

 when applied to corn-crops, it should be either al- 

 ready decomposed, or, if fresh, it should be allow- 

 ed to remain so long in the ground, previous to 

 the seed being sown, as to allow of its fermenta- 

 tion being completed; for it will otherwise occa- 

 sion the growth of weeds, which, if not eradicated, 

 may ripen before the ensuing harvest, and thus in- 

 fest the land with future foulness. VVhen the op- 

 eration has been well performed, and the ground 

 has been thus completely cleansed it is then found 

 to be so well divided, that, if minute attention be 

 also paid to the spreading of the dung, it becomes 

 so thoroughly intermixed with the soil as to ensure 

 a greater return than if it had been laid on during 

 any other periods. The practice is also not un- 

 common of laying it upon clover leys preparatory 

 to a crop of wheat, or of spreading it upon green- 

 sward a year or two before the land is broken up; 

 but the advantages of this latter mode have been 

 doubted by some, though many experienced prac- 

 tical farmers highly recommend if. 



On light land, on which the rotation of crops 

 usually commences with turnips, it has been found 

 by experience that the dung should be well rotted; 

 it is therefore generally mixed twice, in order to 

 get it into a fit state; but, as Swedes are common- 

 ly put in the ground by the middle of May, the 

 manure cannot be properly prepared by that time, 

 unless the yards have, been cleared during the win- 

 ter, and much of that which is thus applied is 

 over-year muck. This, when the crop is drilled, 

 is laid as evenly as possible in the hollows of one- 

 bout ridges, which are afterwards split by a dou- 

 ble-mould-board plough, which covers the dung, 

 by turning them over, and the seed is immediate- 

 ly sown above it; but when sown broad-cast, 

 it is regularly laid over the land, generally 



* In the General Report of Scotland the quantity of 

 farm-yard manure usually applied to fallows is stated 

 to be from 14 to 20 double cart-loads, of about 1^ cu- 

 bic yard each — to the Scotch acre — equal, on an ave- 

 rage, to about 14 per English acre; and from 10 to 15 



,before the last ploughing, though some farm- 

 ers give it a second stirring. When potatoes 

 are planted, the manure used is almost invari- 

 ably stable-dung, when it can be procured in 

 sufficient quantity, which is laid in a shallow seed- 

 furrow immediately under — or, in some cases, over 

 the cuttings; but care should be taken that it be 

 put so deep in the ground as to be out of the way 

 of the harrows, or, otherwise, their hold of the 

 straw might occasion the sets to be removed from 

 their seed-bed. 



.Even when bare fallows become necessary to 

 clean the land, soils of this description are rarely 

 dunged when followed by corn; for they are there- 

 by rendered so open — especially if long dung be 

 used — that the plants are apt to be thrown out by 

 slight frost in the spring, and perish for want of a 

 sufficient hold of the ground. This necessity for 

 the employment of rotten dung not only lessens 

 its bulk, but it must be also borne in mind that the 

 same quantity of straw is not produced as upon 

 rich clays; and although the deficiency of manure 

 thus created may be partly made up by feeding 

 sheep upon turnips, as well as by a smaller quan- 

 tity being used than upon strong land, yet the ex- 

 haustion of light soils is more rapid; they there- 

 fore require more frequent replenishment, and no 

 pains should be spared to increase the amount of 

 dung. 



On grass-land in the neighborhood of London, 

 where the finest meadow-hay in the kingdom is 

 grown, dung of every kind is laid on in all states, 

 both fresh and rotten; and much town-manure, or 

 street-slop, partly in a liquid state, is thrown over 

 the ground in the same condition as when taken 

 out of the carts and barges. It is a cold, clayey 

 district lying on the north side of the Thames, in 

 Hertfordshire and Middlesex, and has been 

 brought to its present fertility solely by the aid of 

 an unceasing application of manure; many of the 

 farmers being under covenants in their leases to 

 lay on a thick coat, of stable- dung, thoroughly rot- 

 ten, in every third year: others apply it fresh — in 

 which state it is said that, 'load for load, if. is to 

 the full as good as when rotteii't — and after it has 

 been washed in by the rain, the straw that re- 

 mains is raked off and added to the dung-hill. 

 There can perhaps be little doubt that dressing 

 the land with dung in a state of fermentation, 

 when diluted with water, is the surest way of im- 



for turnips: vol. ii. p. 519 — 521; which, it may be pre- 

 sumed, includes both light and strong soils. 



Malcolm calculates in loads, which may be supposed 

 to consist of a cubic yard for farm-yard dung, on the 

 following soils and crops, per acre: — 



On strong: lands. 



f Survey of Essex, vol. ii. p 231. 



