216 ARTIP^lCIAL MANURE. 



" It is to be applied by watering grass lands. The ' dregs* 

 may be mixed up with the manure, or spread as a top-dress- 

 ing, or put in the hill. Experience will teach ; I only sug- 

 gest." 



The principle which should guide the farmer in the making 

 of artificial manure has now been considered. The author 

 of these pages is not a practical farmer ; agriculture is not 

 his pursuit, and he has studied its chemistry only as a recrea- 

 tion from the daily duties of life. He has thrown out sug- 

 gestions, the result of researches undertaken with reference 

 to a totally different object, and these suggestions have been 

 acted upon by practical men, whose results confirm his pre- 

 vious anticipations. He has no theory on this subject to 

 maintain ; his opinions must stand or fall by practice, speak 

 for themselves. Yet, he is not altogether indifferent to the 

 practical results which may follow his suggestions, and he 

 would consider that he had inflicted a serious injury on agri- 

 culture, by the publication of erroneous opinions. When a 

 man's character is to be established in a court of evidence, 

 what is the good old English rule ? To call upon the by- 

 standers, the country present, taken indiscriminately from 

 all who may have known the person. Do not summon per- 

 sons whose interest may throw a shadow of suspicion on the 

 testimony of the witness. And so here; let it be proved, 

 if it can be, whether the principles here advanced are of 

 practical value, by calling upon the stand those gentlemen 

 who have tested the author's opinions, and of some of whose 

 operations and results he was ignorant, till he met with them 

 in the agricultural publications of the day, or in accidental 

 conversation ; others have been requested to state by letter 

 their results, after these pages were prepared for the press. 

 The evidence on this point is contained in the Appendix to 

 this volume. 



