ORE 



ORE 



305 



it is taken from the sea. This is 

 practised in those parts of Scotland 

 which lie nearest to the shore ; by 

 which they obtain excellent crops 

 of barley, without impoverishing 

 the soil. Neither have they any 

 occasion for fallowing to recruit it. 

 In hills of potatoes, it answers 

 nearly as well as barn dung. 1 

 have known some spread it upon 

 young flax newly come up, who 

 say it increases their crops surpris- 

 ingly. The flax may grow so fast, 

 and get above this manure and 

 shade it, so soon, as to prevent 

 evaporation by the sun and wind ; 

 so that but a small part of it is 

 lost ; and flax is so hardy a plant 

 that it does not suffer by the vio- 

 lence of salt, like many other 

 young plants. 



But I rather think it is best to 

 putrefy sea weeds before they are 

 applied to the soil. This may 

 speedily be accomplished by lay- 

 ing them in heaps. But the heaps 

 should not lie naked. Let them 

 be covered with loose earth or 

 turf; or else mixed in compost 

 dunghills, or laid in barn yards 

 with divers other substances. This 

 substance will soon dissolve itself, 

 and what is mixed with it, chang- 

 ing to a salt oily slime, very pro- 

 per to fertilize light soils, and not 

 improper for almost any other. 



As to the eel grass, &c. the best 

 way is to cart it in autumn into 

 barn yards, filling the whole areas 

 with it, two or three feet deep. It 

 may be either alone, or have a 

 layer of straw under, and another 

 above it. When it has been tramp- 

 led to pieces by the cattle, and 

 mixed with their stale and dung, it 

 3d 



I will be the fittest to be applied to 

 ! the soil. It being a light and bi- 

 bulous substance, it will absorb 

 the urine, which is totally lost by 

 soaking into the earth, unless some 

 such trash be laid under cattle to 

 take it up, and retain it. 



Farmers who are situated near 

 to the sea shore have a vast ad- 

 vantage for manuring their lands. 

 If they were once persuaded to 

 make a spirited improvement, they 

 might enrich their farms to almost 

 any degree that they please. 

 They should visit the shores after 

 spring tides and violent storms, 

 and with pitchforks take up the 

 weeds, and lay them in heaps a 

 little higher up upon the shore ^ 

 which will at once prevent their 

 growing weaker, and secure them 

 from being carried away by the 

 next spring tide. 



Many are so situated that they 

 can drive th.eir carts on a sandy, 

 hard beach, at low water, to the 

 rocks ; and fill them with weeds. 

 Can they be so stupid as to neglect 

 doing it ? It is even worth while to 

 go miles after this manure with 

 boats, when it cannot be done more 

 easily. 



It has often been observed that 

 manuring with sea weeds is an ex- 

 cellent antidote to insects. It is 

 so, not only in the ground, but al- 

 so upon trees. I have an orchard 

 which has been for many years 

 much annoyed by caterpillars. Last 

 spring, about the last of May, I put 

 a handful of rock weed into each 

 tree, just where the limbs part from 

 the trunk ; after which 1 think there 

 was not another nest formed in the 

 whole orchard. April is a better 



