OF MANURE. 207 



be used in spring as manure, for the barley or oats intend- 

 ed to be laid down with grass seeds. Mr Hunter of Tyne- 

 field, however, is of opinion, that hand labour, in every 

 case of turning and preparing composts, is too expensive, 

 and thinks it better, where any depth of soil has accumu- 

 lated on the head-ridges, to turn it with the plough, after 

 harvest, and to mix about sixteen bolls of lime shells, with 

 about 150 yards of earth, which is sufficient to manure an 

 acre. 



Mr Laing of Campend, near Dalkeith, is of opinion, 

 that by making composts judiciously, the fertilizing powers 

 of dung or lime may be increased, in the ratio of one- 

 fourth, or that instead of twenty, by judicious manage- 

 ment, twenty-five acres may be manured with the same 

 quantity of dung ; for that purpose he proposes to collect 

 cleanings of the road, scourings of the ditches, or accumu- 

 lated earth on head-lands, with as much dung as will raise 

 a fermentation or heat in the dunghill, turning it over for 

 a few weeks before driving, that it may be thoroughly in- 

 corporated.* 



Mr Dudgeon of Prora observes, that compounds of all 

 kinds are valuable ; they so act upon one another in the 



* Mr Laing very strongly recommends, when wheat is sown with one 

 furrow after grass, (which in most soils is a very precarious and uncer- 

 tain crop), manuring it with dung or lime compost, after being ploughed, 

 as it would derive great benefit from the carting consolidating the soil ; 

 for in ley wheat, very often there is a vacancy between the furrows, 

 from which the plants die when they are extending their roots for food, 

 which the carting and treading of the horses would in a great measure 

 prevent. The advantage of treading wheat land, has long been known in 

 England, and should be secured, as often as the circumstances of the 

 case, and. the pressure of labour, at the busy seasons of the year, will 

 admit of it. 



