140 LESSONS ON CHEMISTKY. 



cover the refuse completely. It is driven fresh to the field, 

 whenever a supply can be obtained from the fishers. In two 

 or three months the compost is ready for use, and, as a 

 manure for turnips, is superior to farm- yard dung, and equally 

 beneficial on light and heavy soils. When used for turnips, 

 the compost is spread with shovels, out of the cart, along the 

 drills, at the rate mentioned, over which the drills are split, 

 and the seed sown along the drills by the machine. Of 

 course, it may be applied to bare fallow, for wheat as well as 

 for green crops." On the coasts of Ireland, we possess 

 numerous deposits of muscles, and other varieties of shell- 

 fish, which could be conveniently applied as manure. On 

 tlie shores of Strangford Lough, there are immense accumu- 

 lations of vegetable matters and mud, full of shells, which 

 might, with very little expense, be carted over the fields, but 

 which, so far as I am aware, have not yet been economized 

 by the farmer. In Donegal also, at Mulroy Bay, and in 

 several other localities, there exist beds of shell-sand, which 

 are, at the present time, extensively used as manure. 



208. The flesh of animals, and hlood, which may be re- 

 garded as liquid flesh, are not, to any extent, used as manures 

 in this country. Originally derived from plants, both contain 

 the most valuable ingredients of the soil, and are also rich in 

 nitrogen. In Paris, the blood from the slaughter-houses is 

 carefully collected and dried, and, in that state, sold at 85. 

 per cwt. Recent flesh and liquid blood possess the following 



composition : Flesh. Blood. 



Water 77 80 



Organic matters 22 19 



Phosphate of lime f \ -, 



Other saline matters \ 3 



100 100 



209. The inorganic matter, or ash, of the blood of the ox, 

 according to Dr. Enderlin, contains the following ingredients 

 of plants : — 



Phosphate of Soda 16-77 



Common Salt 69-34 



Chloride of Potassium 6-12 



Sulphate of Soda (Glauber Salt) 3-85 



Phosphates of Lime and Magnesia 4-19 



Oxide and Phosphate of Iron 8-28 



Gypsum and Loss 1-45 



100 



