OF MANURE. 283 



of late received that attention to which it is so justly entitled. 

 Perhaps the urine of a horse, from its being so much light- 

 er, is equally valuable as the dung he produces, more espe- 

 cially if both were to be conveyed to any distance ; and it 

 is calculated that the urine of twelve cows, is sufficient to 

 top-dress two English acres of meadow : on the supposition, 

 that an acre would require twenty cart-loads of dung at 5s. 

 per cart-load, or L.5 per acre, the urine of each cow would 

 thus be worth above 1 8s. per annum. Urine is advantageous- 

 ly employed, either by pumping it over the dunghill, or as 

 a compost with peat, fine earth, or the refuse of the tan-pit. 

 A plan has been adopted by Mr Charles Alexander near 

 Peebles, for collecting urine, and preparing it for use, which 

 it is proper to describe. He has made a pit, about twelve 

 yards square, and four feet deep, which he fills with fat 

 earth, carted from headlands, or wherever it can be got 

 most conveniently, and levelled on the surface, so that the 

 urine of the cattle he feeds, which is conveyed to the pit by 

 a sewer, may spread equally over it. The edges are raised 

 about six inches high, by a parapet of puddled earth, for 

 preventing the urine from running over. The earth is cart- 

 ed to the compost pit in the summer, immediately after its 

 former contents are applied to the turnips. The drier the 

 earth is, when laid in, the better, as it imbibes more of the 

 urine. After the compost has received the greatest part of 

 the urine, which is about the latter end of April, (as at that 

 time the feeding cattle are sold oft'), it is carefully turned 

 over, when it shews symptoms of complete saturation. 

 While the urine is applying, and the mass in a drenched 

 stale, there is little fermentation ; but when turned over and 

 laid dry, the fermentation of the mass is brisk, visible by its 

 heat, and it is completely mellowed for laying on the turnips 

 in June. In this way, Mr Alexander raises above 100 square 

 yards of rich manure, and when applied to the ground, 



