OF MANURE. 177 



above ground.* Dung is generally applied to potatoes in 

 the same way ; but is sometimes laid on in autumn, and 

 mixed with the soil. When in drills, it is recommended 

 by Mr Laing of Campend, near Dalkeith, to make the 

 drills across the field, if the ground is so dry as to admit of 

 it, as by ploughing for the succeeding crop, the way the 

 ridges lie across the drills, the dung is mixed with the soil ; 

 on the other hand, when the dung is put in drills as the 

 ridges lie, (particularly in poor soils), in ploughing for the 

 next crop, the dung is turned over in a body, and the crop 

 grows very unequal ; for where the dung is, it is very 

 strong, and the other part, which is probably two-thirds, 

 is very indifferent. It answers much the same purpose, if 

 the lines are diagonally drawn. Dung, when given to 

 beans, is generally applied on the stubble of the prece- 

 ding crop, and sometimes in the spring, immediately before 

 the seed furrow is given them. As to the time of carrying 

 out and laying on dung, it saves expence if it can be car- 

 ried out after harvest, but is most advantageously applied 

 when the crops are sown. If applied to naked fallows, it 



fine for sowing, and just as the barley is pointing through the ground, he 

 leads out the dung, prepared as above, and sows it on the land, at the 

 rate of from eight to ten bushels per acre. By this plan, after a turnip 

 fallow, or when turnips are eaten off by sheep, and prepared for barley, 

 Mr Hopkins has had returns of from seven to nine quarters of barley per 

 acre. A similar system might be tried with regard to other articles. 



* In a dry season, some recommend that the dunghill ought to be 

 well saturated with water at the time it is put into the drill, and the 

 earth immediately after turned upon it, in order to secure the turnip 

 crop. Others contend, that dung, if attentively made, will always be 

 moist, and that the process of fermentation and putrefaction will go on. 

 Cold water would check these, and would prove adverse to vegetation, 

 particularly of turnips, which ought to be promoted with all possible ra- 

 pidity. 



VOL. I. M 



