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DRE 



DRI 



the coldest manure should be appli- 

 ed ; such as the dung of hogs, 

 cows, oxen, &;c. Dung that is 

 much mixed with straw does best 

 in such a soil, as the straw soon 

 rots and becomes food for plarits. 

 Cold and stiff soils should be dres- 

 sed with the hottest and driest ma- 

 nures, as the dung of horses, sheep 

 and fowls. Wet soils should have 

 manures that have the greatest 

 power of absorbing moisture. — 

 Lime, where it is cheap and plen- 

 ty, may be used with great advan- 

 tage ; ashes, coals, and saw dust, 

 are also very proper. 



Some kinds of dressing should be 

 well mixed with the soil, by the 

 plough and harrow 5 especially 

 such as are apt to lose their 

 strength, by being exposed to the 

 air. Of this sort are dungs in gen- 

 eral, and some other manures. — 

 Dung is to be ploughed in with a 

 light furrow. Composts, which 

 consist of dung, earth, and other 

 substances,need only to be harrow- 

 ed. If dressings are laid too deep, 

 as under deep furrows, they will 

 be in a manner lost ; the roots of 

 most kinds of annual plants will 

 scarcely reach them ; and, before 

 the next ploughing, the strength of 

 them will be sunk still deeper into 

 the earth. 



There are other manures which 

 should be used only as top dres- 

 sings. Their exposure to the air 

 takes away httle or none of their 

 virtue, being of an alkaline na- 

 ture, such as ashes, lime, and the 

 like. They are speedily settled 

 into the soil by rains, and melting 

 snows ; and afford a more kindly 

 nourishment to the roots of grass 



and grain, than if they were buried 

 in the soil. Being laid lower than 

 the surface, their strength would be 

 more apt to be carried lower than 

 the roots of plants commoni) reach. 



Some dressings are thought to 

 be more successfully applied some 

 time before sowing. Such a one 

 lime is said to be, as being apt to 

 burn, or too much heal the seed. 

 But this, 1 think, can be only when 

 it is laid on unslacked, and in large 

 quantities. 



Other dressings answer best at 

 the time of sowing. This is the 

 case as to most kinds of dung that 

 are used, and of several other ma- 

 nures. 



But those manures which exert 

 all their strength suddenly, are al- 

 lowed to be best used only as lop 

 dressings, after the plants are up, 

 such as soot, ashes, certain warm 

 composts, and malt dust. If they 

 are laid on winter grain in autumn, 

 there will be danger of their caus- 

 ing too rapid a growth : In conse- 

 quence of which, the grain will be 

 afterwards stinted, and languish, 

 unless another and larger dressing 

 be given it in the following spring, 

 or summer. It is probably best to 

 apply these dressings just before 

 the time when the plants will need 

 the greatest supply of vegetable 

 nourishment, which is when their 

 growth is most rapid, or near the 

 time when the ears are shooting 

 out. 



The adapting of dressings to the 

 nature of plants will be found, in 

 those parts of this work, where the 

 most useful plants are treated of. 



DRILL HUSBANDRY. Sir 

 John Sinclair has the following re- 



