FISH. 



FISH. 



It is evident, from the experience of all who 

 have tried blubber, that it is best used when 

 previously mixed with from 10 to 20 times its 

 weight of earth, and turned over once or twice 

 during three or four months. In its uncombined 

 state it is evidently too powerful. When mixed 

 with mould, it speedily undergoes a strong fer- 

 mentation, and the mass becomes of the most 

 friable and fertilizing description. Train oil 

 has also been employed with the most decided 

 success ; it has been used united with screened 

 earth, and produced the most luxuriant of 

 crops. In an experiment made by Mr. Mason, 

 of Chiltcn, which is described by Lord Spen- 

 cer, in a communication furnished to the Don- 

 caster Agricultural Society, 40 gallons of un- 

 refined train oil, which cost 8$d. per gallon, 

 were mixed with 120 bushels of screened earth 

 about a month before it was applied to one acre 

 of a tenacious soil, sown with turnips ; and on 

 an adjoining acre of similar land were applied 

 40 bushels of bones, broken small, and mixed 

 with 80 bushels of burnt earth ; the crop pro- 

 duced was as follows : 



Produce of turnips per acre. 

 tons, civt it. 



Oil, 40 pallons - - - ") OQ - 



Screened earth, ISObushels - $ ' 



Bones, 40 bushels - ? 9 , 18 .- 



Burnt earth, 80 bushels - 3 ' 



And in The Mark Lane Express of February 8, 

 1841, Mr. W. Sharp, of Scanning Moor, in Not- 

 tinghamshire, thus describes his experiments 

 with fish oil, mixed with bone dust: "I will 

 give you my experiment with oil. The soil is 

 a poor gravel, the farm in the parish of Ed- 

 winstow, and enclosed off the old Forest, near 

 to Thorseby Park. 



"My attention was drawn to the use of oil in 

 consequence of the serious expense (31. to 4/. 

 per acre) I was obliged to go to in bones and 

 rape dust, for I never use yard manure for tur- 

 nips, as the s.oil is so poor, I cannot get wheat 

 without manure ; I therefore save it all for my 

 wheat. My first trial was in 1839, on 2 acres, 

 in a 9-acre field, and nearly in the middle of it. 

 I give you the cost of one acre, 



s. d. 

 5 strikes of half inch hones, the dust in (2s. 7} J. 



per strike), per acre ..... 13 H 

 3 gallons of train-oil, at 2s. 6d. per gallon - 7 6 

 10 strikes of coal ashes - - - - -000 



Remainder of the field as below, 



*. d. 



16 strikes of bones, as above, at 2s. 7i<7. per 

 strike - - - -- - - -220 



5 hundred of rape-dust, at 6*. 9d. per hundred .1 13 9 



'3 15 

 - 1 7i 



1} 



With oH - - - 



Balance in favour of oil - 2 15 



"The oil turnips were as good as the re- 

 mainder of the field ; and all as fine as I could 

 wish, for the land. The barley as good, and 

 the clover is now excellent. My next trial in 

 1840, on 9 acres, 



s. d. 

 11 strikes of half inch bones, dust in, at 2s. &f. 



per strike, per sere - - - -.--176 

 3 gallons of train-oil, at 2*. M. per gallon - 7 6 



1 15 



480 



" 1 1 acres, dressed as below, is a trial against 

 oil, 



16 strikes of bones, at 2s. Gd. per strike, per 



acre 



5 hundred of rape-dust, at 6s. M. per hundred 

 16 strikes of pigeon manure, at la. 6d. per strike 



With oil - 



Balance in favour of oil 



s. d. 



17 6 



13 9 



4 



15 3 

 15 



3 



"I think the 9 acres with oil rather the best 

 field, and the turnips are decidedly better. The 

 rape-dust I sow broadcast on the surface; it is 

 then drawn in its proper place by ridging; I 

 then drill my bones on the ridges 22 inches 

 apart, the turnips were white tops. I do not 

 like the ashes mixed with the oil; it makes it 

 dirty and bad to drill; the 11 strikes of bones 

 carefully mixed will absorb the oil, so as to 

 drill excellent. I let them lie about two days 

 after mixing. I know your readers will say, 

 how is barley grown after so light a dressing? 

 I answer with my feeding sheep I use oil- 

 cake, and with my store sheep malt-coombs, 

 and the straw in the yard is all consumed 

 with oil-cake I take my seeds up for wheat. 



"Some farmers may possibly doubt the cor- 

 rectness of my assertion, that all the principal 

 vegetable substances are composed of precise- 

 ly the same ingredients as oil and other purely 

 animal matters ; and as it is of the first im- 

 portance that the cultivator should clearly un- 

 derstand the reason why the decomposition of 

 animal matters furnishes such admirable- food 

 for vegetation, I must beg of him to compare 

 the analysis of the oils which I have already 

 stated, with that of the following common vege- 

 table substances, as ascertained by the most 

 careful analysis. I will merely give that of 

 three substances : sugar, 100 parts of which 

 are composed, according to M. Berzelius, of 



Partt. 



Oxvaren 5147 



Carbon - - - * - - - 41 '48 

 Hydrogen - - - - - 7 05 



100-00 

 (Jnn. of Phil. vol. v. p. 262.) 



In 100 parts of starch from wheat flour are 

 found 



Parts. 

 Oxypen ....... 49-63 



Carbon 4335 



Hydrogen 



(Guy Lv.gsac, Reek. vii. p. 291.) 



The wood of oak is composed of 



- 6-77 

 10000 



Oxygen - 

 Carbon 

 Hydrogen 



Parti. 



41-78 



52-53 



569 



100-00 



(Ibid. vol. ii. p. 294.) 



"All oily and other animal substances, there- 

 ^re, as they decompose in the soil, are slowly 

 converted into those gaseous substances which 

 are the food or breath of vegetable life, such as 

 carbonic acid gas (fixed air) or carburetted 

 hydrogen (the gas employed for illumination), 

 and which are absorbed either by the roots or 

 the leaves of the plant as they are formed. 

 There is little or no waste in these, for when 

 the decomposition of the oils and fibrous mat- 



