PORTABLE MANUEE3.] PEINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OP [geologists. 



and 'svinter-fed cattle? The philosopher, 

 however, happily stepped in. He came to the 

 assistance of the fanner, and, by his know- 

 Jedge, relieved him from the difficulties by 

 which he was encompassed. Nitrate of soda 

 and guano were imported ; and, as we have 

 just shown, superphosphate of lirae from bones 

 was invented. Agricultural chemistry soon 

 won the place of a practical or a profitable 

 science, and the anomalies in connection with 

 the use of lime, chalk, gypsum, &c,, were 

 explained by the joint exertions of the farmer 

 and his new ally, the philosophical explorer 

 and expounder of Nature's secrets — the 

 chemist. Nitrate of soda was imported from 

 Peru, and sold, in small quantities, by an agri- 

 cultural manure-dealer, about 1835 ; and, in 

 the same year, a cargo of guano was consigned 

 to a Mr. Myers, a Liverpool merchant. The 

 value of this manure proved immense. At 

 first its merits were not credited by the 

 farmers — a tardy race, and much given to 

 incredulity in their own vocation ; but the 

 shrewd-witted dealers in artificial manures 

 accepted the new article, and sold it, either in 

 a pure state, or under a special name, mixed 

 with less active ingredients. In 18i3, a store, 

 inferior to that of Peru, having been discovered 

 on the Ichaboe Islands, off the coast of Africa, 

 1,100 feet long, 400 broad, and, on an average, 

 35 feet deep — the whole was removed before 

 the end of 1844, and realised upwards of a 

 million sterling. Three years before this, an 

 article of forty-three pages, from the German 

 of Dr. Charles Sprengel, appeared in the first 

 volume of the Journal of the Boyal Agricul- 

 iural Societjj ; in which, though every kind of 

 animal manure was described, guano only 

 received a passing mention as a curiosity ; and 

 no note, to supply the deficiency, was attached 

 by the editor — so little was it then known to 

 the most intelligent cultivators, and so rapidly 

 had the knowledge of its value spread in the 

 interval. 



About 1851, an important addition to the 

 portable manures was discovered by Mr. 

 Odams, in the blood and garbage of the 

 London slaughter-houses. This refuse had 

 hitherto been thrown down the.^ sewers, or 

 upon dung-heaps ; but, in 1858, it was con- 

 tracted for, to the extent of upwards of nearly 

 800,000 gallons a year- Mixed with ground 

 898 



or calcined bones, and sulphuric acid, it is 

 turned into a vig irous corn and root fertiliser, 

 known to agriculturists as the " nitro-phos- 

 phate manure." The mere circumstance of 

 these products becoming articles of sale, and 

 not of home manufacture by the farmer, had 

 the effect of greatly extending their use. The 

 seller of artificial manures helped, in another 

 way, the general movement, which was stimu- 

 lating the whole of the agricultural mind 

 throughout the kingdom. He made the dis- 

 covery, that his fertilising stimulants were 

 stripped of half their value when applied to 

 wet or ill-cultivated land. - " Hence," says 

 the reviewer already quoted, " he became the 

 eager advocate of thorough drainage, and 

 that thorough preparation of the soil, which 

 can only be effected by the best class of 

 ploughs, hari'ows, horse-hoes, and clod-crush- 

 ers. His customers would have been cus- 

 tomers no longer, unless he could have con- 

 vinced them that the fault was in themselves, 

 and not in the goods. He argued to ears 

 which had, at least, been opened, and pre- 

 vailed without the assistance of the hedge- 

 stake. A man grudged growing weeds on a 

 fertile soil, for which he had paid hard 

 cash ; nor could a manure that cost £10 or 

 £12 a ton, be refused the economy of a 

 machine to distribute it carefully; and thus 

 drill husbandry spread, led by pipe-drains 

 from Norfolk, Sufiblk, and Bedfordshire, into 

 every county of England, and with it brought 

 all the machines and implements required for 

 a clean, rapid, concentrated cultivation." 



THE GEOLOGISTS. 



The chemists having performed their work, 

 it remained for the geologists to do theirs. 

 Accordingly, Professor Henslow, the botanist, 

 had, in 1842, observed some nodules at Felix 

 Stowe, on the coast of Sufiblk; and, in the 

 following year, collected a quantity of them, and 

 forwarded them to a Mr. Potter, for analysis. 

 The manipulation proved them to be fossils, 

 commonly called coprolites, on the hypothesis 

 that they consisted of the excrement of ani- 

 mals, and containing from 50 to 55 per cent, 

 of phosphate of lime. Prom this discovery 

 the professor might have realised a fortune ; 

 but professors of science are not proverbially 

 shrewd in monetary affairs. The quarry of 



