LIQUID MANURE. 



LIQUID MANURE. 



Water ------ 



Urea 



Phosphate of lime - 



Muriates of poiassa and ammonia - 



Sulphate of potassa - 



Carbonates of potassa and ammonia 



Par*. 



650 

 4-0 

 3-0 



l.VO 

 60 

 40 

 3-0 



100- 



It would appear, from some experiments of 

 Dr. Belcher, that the ammoniacal salts of urine 



have a forcing or stimulating power, which 



separated from the other portions. According 1 

 to very careful experiments, this fluid part often 

 contains 16 per cent, of animal matters, salts, 

 &c., intimately or chemically combined with 

 the water. 



No farmer, after such an analysis of the 

 sewerage of a large city, can feel surprised at 

 the important results from the use of that 

 sewer water, as long practised in the vicinity 



of Edinburgh. After learning the composition 

 of such a foul mass its endless mixture of 



considerably hastens the vegetation of plants, j organic matters its soot its carbonate of 



His experiments were made with the common ! lime and, above all, its urine, the forcing na- 



garden cress; and, in bis trials, some plants 



nourished with a solution of phosphate of am 



monia were 15 days more advanced than plants 

 growing under similar circumstances, but wa- 

 tered with plain water. In some experiments 

 of Mr. Gregory, who watered half a grass field 

 at Leyton with urine, the portion thus treated 

 yielded nearly double the quantity of hay pro- 

 duced by the other un manured portion ; and 

 the use of the urine of the cow, so extensively 

 employed for grass lands, and in the garden 

 and orchard, by Mr. Harley, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Glasgow, was attended with results 

 equally satisfactory, producing, when diluted 

 with water or soap-suds, very superior crops 

 of grass on land of a very inferior description. 

 I shall conclude with a few observations on the 

 loss which the cultivated lands of England in- 

 cessantly sustain from the neglect of the liquid 

 manure of the sewers of her cities and large 

 towns, a question to which I have before 

 alluded in this paper, and which is not nearly 

 so well understood as is desirable. Thus, by 

 carefully conducted experiments, and very ac- 

 curate gaugings, it has been found that the 

 chief London sewers convey daily into the 

 Thames about 115,000 tons of mixed drainage, 

 consisting, on an average computation, (> f l 

 part of solid and 25 parts absolutely fluid mat- 

 ters; but if we only allow I part in 30 of this 

 immense mass to be composed of solid sub- 

 stances, then we have the large quantity of 

 more than 3800 tons of solid manure daily 

 poured into the river from London alone, con- 

 sisting principally of excrements, soot, and the 

 debris of the London streets, which is chiefly 

 carbonate of lime: thus, allowing 20 tons of 

 this manure as a dressing for an acre of 



ture of the ammoniacal salts which that fluid 

 contains, added to the presence of the other 

 matters which lire the food of plants, and the 

 constant supply of such irrigation water in all 

 seasons he will readily give credence to the 

 talented editor of the Quarterly Journal of Agri- 

 culture, when he asserts that, by such treatment 

 of the Edinburgh meadows with the sewerage 

 irrigation, they have been increased in value 

 several pounds per acre yearly. 



I have often employed, with decided effect, 

 in my own garden, for vines, peach, and stand- 

 ard apple trees, liquid manure, prepared either 

 by mixing one part by weight of cow dung 

 with four part- of water, or the collected drain- 

 age of the stable and cow-house. Of these the 

 vine is by far the most benefited by the appli- 

 cation ; but to whatever fruit-tree the gardener 

 has occasion to apply manure, there is no form 

 so manageable and so grateful to the plant 

 as the liquid. It has been found advantageous 

 to plants cultivated in stoves to apply even a 

 liquid manure, composed of six quarts of soot 

 to a hogshead of water; and although this is a 

 very unchemical mixture, yet it has been found 

 by Mr. Robertson to be peculiarly grateful and 

 nourishing to pines, causing them to assume an 

 unusually deep healthy green; and for stoved 

 mulberry, vine, peach, and other plants, the 

 late Mr. Knight, of Downton, employed a liquid 

 manure, composed of one part of the dung of 

 domestic poultry, and 4 to 10 parts of water, 

 with the most excellent result the trees main- 

 taining, at the end of two years, "the most 

 healthy and luxuriant appearance imaginable." 

 (7Vvi/w. Hort. Soc. vol. ii. p. 127.) 



In whatever way we view the question of 

 liquid manure, an abundant field of research 



ground, there is evidently a quantity of solid presents itself on every side: it is evidently an 



manure annually poured into the river equal 

 to fertilizing more than 50,000 acres of the 

 poorest cultivated land! The quantity of food 

 thus lost to the country by this heedless waste 

 of manure is enormous ; for, only allowing one 



investigation likely to amply repay the culti- 

 vator for the labour he may be induced to be- 

 stow upon it. By such manures, nourishment 

 for vegetation is more equally diffused through 

 the soil, and becomes more speedily service- 



crop of wheat to be raised on these 50,000 j able to the crop, than by any other mode of 

 acres, that would be equal to the maintenance cultivation. I have endeavoured, also, in this 

 (calculating upon an average produce of three ' article, to convince the farmer of what I have 

 quarters of wheat per acre) of 150,000 persons. | long remarked in my own practice that a 

 London, too, is only one huge instance of this j much smaller quantity of manure, if uniformly 

 thoughtless waste of the agricultural riches of I mixed with land, is sufficient for all the pur- 

 the soil of England; from every other English poses of fertilization than is commonly be- 

 city, every town, every hamlet, is hourly pass- lieved. Such investigations must be of the 

 ing into the sea a proportionate waste of liquid highest interest to the farmer and to the public 

 manure; and I have only spoken of the solid or in general, for they relate to the increased pro- 

 mechanically suspended matters of the sewer- duce of the land of England ; and not only does 

 age; the absolutely fluid portion is still rich in a fortunate experiment carry with it its own 

 urine, ammoniacal salts, soda, &c., when all reward, but even an unsuccessful one is not 

 the mechanically suspended matters have been without its advantages, it serves, at least, as 



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