OF MANURE. 



remains to be described. It is a discovery made by Mr 

 Mitchell, surgeon at Ayr, winch both the inventor, and 

 others in his neighbourhood, have tried with the most be- 

 neficial effects. The following description of the process 

 is given by Mr Mitchell : " Take thirty-two Winchester 

 bushels of lime, and slack it with sea-water, previously 

 boiled to the saturated state, or to the state of brine, to the 

 consistency of soapers' waste. This quantity is sufficient 

 for an acre of land, and may either be thrown out of the 

 carts with a shovel, over the land in the above state, or 

 made into compost, with forty carts of moss or earth, in 

 which state it will be found to pay fully for the additional 

 labour, and is sufficient for an acre of fallow ground, though 

 ever so reduced before. Its component parts are muriate 

 and sulphate of lime, mineral alkali, in an uncombined state, 

 also muriate and carbonate of soda. All the experiments 

 have done well with it, but especially wheat and beans, and 

 it has not been behind any manure, with which it has been 

 compared. There is one instance, in which it was tried, in 

 comparison ^vith seventy-two cart-loads of soapers' waste 

 and dung, and although this was an extraordinary dress- 

 ing, nevertheless, that, with the new manure, was fully 

 above the average of the field. The experiments this year 

 are more extensive, and as far as the season has gone, look 

 well, and promise a good crop."* This species of manure, 

 however, can only be prepared near the sea, or in the 

 neighbourhood of the salt-springs in Cheshire; but as a 

 sufficient dressing, for an acre, can be transported in four 

 single-horse carts, it may be carried twenty or thirty miles 

 inland to advantage. 



Mr Mitchell calculates, that 3000 gallons of sea-water, 



* Alton's Ayrshire, p. 385. 



