VEGETABLE MANURES. 149 



tarpaulin dipped in water, or by damp sods, or scraws, placed 

 over the whole, so as to perfectly exclude the air. This must 

 be done effectually, or it will continue to bum ; and a very 

 certain way to do this is, to throw round it at the base, after 

 the tarpaulin or scraws have been placed over the whole heap, 

 a few shovelluls of clay, so as to prevent any air from 

 entering underneath. AVhen charcoal is to be prepared on a 

 large scale for extensive farms, an extinguisher made of sheet 

 iron, sufficiently large to cover the heap and rest close in the 

 ground, will be desirable; and can be made at a trifling cost. 

 Two handles, extending about a yard at each side, in the 

 fonn of a T, will enable it to be lifted, and placed over the 

 heap, without inconvenience from the heat, &c. When the 

 heap of charcoal has become cold, the lumps may be broken 

 up by mallets or pounders, with very little labom-, and, 

 for general purposes, should be about the same size as coarse 

 sand. 



230. Having described the preparation of peat charcoal, 

 and the valuable fertilizing qualities which it has been found 

 to possess, I will now endeavour to reply to the inquiry 

 which has several times been addressed to me by persons 

 desirous of applying it as a manure: — Is it, hy itself, to he 

 regarded as a sufficient manure for all the crops of the 

 farmer? Trials, made both in this country and on the con- 

 tinent, have shown, that, drilled in with wheat, it has tended 

 greatly to promote the growth of that grain. It has also 

 been used alone, with success, as a manure for the turnip 

 and potato crops; but I do not consider that it could be 

 judicious to advise you to rely upon it as sufficient, in all 

 cases, to ensure a full return. Such advice might lead to 

 disappointment, and induce you to neglect what I regard as 

 a really important addition to our stock of home manure. 



231. It should be regarded by the farmer not as a univer- 

 sal medicine, capable of curing all the diseases of a neglected 

 and worn-out field, but as a useful auxiliary, which, when 

 combined with kelp, dissolved bones, or saturated with the 

 fertilizing liquids, at present permitted to run away from his 

 stables and cow-houses, will give him a cheap and valuable 

 compound, containing everything that his crops require for 

 their full development, and which, may be relied on with 

 confidence — mixed, as I lately described, with ordinary farm- 

 yard dung, it >\ill alao be found to contribute, in no small 



