TIIF. CHEMISTS.] 



MODERN E X L 1 S 1 1 1' A K M 1 N G. [portable ma}juub§. 



vr.te enterprise, for cnrrying out an improve- 



ineiit which, on tho worst chiss of wt-t hiiul, 

 "•ave m'iilonce of ita value by tho nvilisutioti of 

 iiiiinediate profits. 



Resides the government encouragenjent 

 given to tlie drainage scheme, there was 

 another circumstance which gr(>:\tly helped to 

 promote the worU. About the period when 

 the system of deep draining was brought to 

 perfection, tlie great hmiiowners, being solici- 

 tous of encouraging their tenants, who were de- 

 pressed by the approaching free trade iu corn, 

 madt) thorough draining the most fashion- 

 able improvement. Tlie Norfolk sheep- 

 folding rotation had accomplished much for 

 li<Tht laud : had brought the cultivation of roots 

 to a high pitch, and proportionably increased 

 the live-stock on every light-land farm. The 

 proprietors of strong retentive soils were 

 naturally anxious to follow in the path of 

 their light-land neighbours, and to grow tho 

 roots which were seen to afford such high 

 profits in beef and mutton; and deep drainage 

 enabled them to realise these hopes and 

 desires. 



THE CHEMISTS. 

 Previous to the farmers, and the agricul- 

 turists generally, having become accustomed 

 to the value of certain foreign manures which 

 had been imported into the country, Professor 

 Liebig suggested that the fertilising power of 

 bone manure, which had already been used, 

 would be increased by the application of sul- 

 phuric acid, and the consequent production of 

 superphosphate of lime. This suggestion was 

 not lost on some of our keen commercial 

 speculators. Accordingly, the experiment was 

 tried by a carboy of sulphuric acid being 

 poured over a few bushels of ground boucs, 

 when Suffolk drills, charged with superphos- 

 phate and guano, were despatched through 

 the farming districts of the country, to show to 

 agriculturists, that if they desired to grow 

 larf'e root-crops, there was something neces- 

 sary to be added to their immemoriably- 

 estublished favourite manure, which they 

 designated by the name of " muck." "We 

 are told that one of the first to experiment 

 upon the new manure, and then to manufac- 

 ture it on an extensive scale, was Mr. Lawes, 

 of Uertfordshire, a squire and scientific chemist. 

 5y 



Uo was followed by Mr. Pursor, of London; 

 who, ill ISi:}, be^^an with a solitary carboy of 

 sulphuric acid, which cost ten shillings; and fre- 

 quently afterwards he ])urcha8ed ten thousand 

 cnrbovs at a time. A few years later, Mossrs. 

 Dixon aiul Cardus, at Soutlmmpton, niado a 

 profitable speculation by a contract with tho 

 government of Buenos Ayrcs, fur the cxclu- 

 sivo right of exporting tho charred llesh and 

 ashes of joints of meat burned, for want of 

 other fuel, on tho treeless Pampas, to boil 

 down tho tallow. This animal refuse (tho 

 accumulation of a quarter of a century), when 

 treated with sulphuric acid, is converted into 

 valuable superphosphate. But, although every 

 quarter of tho globe, even battle-fields, w^re 

 searched for bones, the supply was insufllcient 

 to meet the demand. It consequently became 

 necessary that some new resource should be 

 found, in order to keep down the price of 

 those manures, become so scarce, and deemed 

 30 valuable. 



PORTABLE ]MANURES. 

 Before 1835, farmers and agriculturists, in 

 addition to farm-yard dung, or night-soil, used 

 for manuring their lands, gypsum, chalk, lime, 

 soot, marl, salt, saltpetre, rape-cake, and 

 bones. The discovery of the fertilising pro- 

 perties of bone was made by accident, at a 

 fox-hound kennel in Yorkshire. Generously 

 strewed over the heaths and wolds of Lincoln- 

 shire, it proved to be the philosopher's stone, 

 which converted rabbit-warrens and gorse fox- 

 coverts into fields of yellow grain. A Mr. 

 Nelson, one of the late Lord Tarborough's 

 tenants, was wont to say, that he did not care 

 who knew that he had made £SO,000 out of 

 his farm, by making use of bones before other 

 people were acquainted with the manner of 

 usiu"' them. But what proved to bo a success 

 in one parish, or field, frequently failed in the 

 one adjoining ; and sometimes the farm which 

 had once yielded abundantly in return for a 

 dressing of lime or gypsum, inflexibly refused 

 to respond to a second application. More 

 extraordinary still, the root-crop — the founda- 

 tion of the famous Norfolk rotation, the Gol- 

 conda of half-a-dozen counties — began to fail, 

 devoured in infancy by the fly. This was 

 startling enough; for, without the turnip, 

 whence was the provender to come for sheep, 



b07 



