MANURES. 



MANURES. 



of Henry Dixon,Esq.to the Juthor, November, 1839, 

 and March, 1840.) 



" A friend of ours, a farmer in Northumber- 

 land," says the excellent editor of the Quarterly 

 Journal of Agriculture, " the late Mr. George 

 Bro\yn, Hetten Steads, mixed any quantity of 

 coal-ashes, kept dry, and finely riddled, with a 

 quarter of bone-dust per acre, and raised as 

 good a crop of turnips (of course drilled) of all 

 kinds, on a clayey soil, resting on a retentive 

 bottom (but drained), as he could with two 

 quarters of bone-dust." Mr. Turner of Tring, 

 in Hertfordshire, drilled with his crushed bones 

 an equal quantity per acre of sheep dung, col- 

 lected for the express purpose, at an expense 

 of 2rf. per bushel paid to the collectors: this 

 he prepared in the winter, by laying the bone- 

 dust in alternate layers with sheep-dung, and 

 suffering them to remain fermenting some 

 months until the turnip sowing. By this plan, 

 by the fermentation of the mass, the two ma- 

 nures are thoroughly incorporated; and he 

 considers that 35 bushels of the mixture are 

 fully equal in effect to 25 bushels of the bones. 

 So that, allowing 3.*. 6c/. per acre for the ex- 

 pense of collecting the sheep-dung, there will 

 be a clear saving of 12s. 6rf. per acre in bones, 

 valuing these at 2s. per bushel. The mixed 

 bones and sheep-dung are invariably drilled in 

 with the turnip-seed. 



The application of rape-cake powder by the 

 drill has never been so common as it ought to 

 be, for it is not only a very powerful, but a very 

 easily manageable fertilizer; it has, moreover, 

 the advantage of being moderate in price, and 

 easily attainable at all seasons of the year. 

 There is no doubt of the advantage of feeding 

 stock with this food, the manure they produce 

 when thus fed being exceedingly rich. Many 

 farmers, however, owing to the want of cattle, 

 or an unwillingness to lay out the requisite 

 money in a long course of stall-feeding, are 

 deterred from using oil-cake to the extent they 

 would otherwise do. The use of the oil-cake 

 powder conveys to the land all the enriching 

 ingredients of this fertilizer at once, and to the 

 exact extent the farmer requires ; there is 

 neither the waste, the risk, or the trouble of 

 stall-feeding to be dreaded. The oil remaining 

 in the cake certainly constitutes its most en- 

 riching portion ; the oil abounding in sprats is 

 an instance familiar to the farmer, and when 

 this oil is imperfectly crushed out, the cake 

 produced (as is well known to the Swedish 

 cultivator in the case of herring-cake) is found 

 to be exceedingly enriching. A very small 

 quantity of oil left by the crushers in the cake 

 will produce very great results ; even three 

 gallons of train-oil, as I have mentioned in 

 another place, has been found amply sufficient 

 per acre, when mixed with earth or ashes, to 

 produce a capital crop of turnips. It has been 

 found (and this is another illustration of the 

 value of the manure-drill), that when rape- 

 cake is drilled with the turnip-seed, 3^ cwt. per 

 acre is sufficient, but if it is applied broadcast, 

 then double the quantity is required. My friend 

 Mr. Davis, of Spring Park, in Surrey, is well 

 aware of the powers of oil-cake as a manure; 

 he has found it even an advantageous plan to 

 drill common coal, wood, or turf-ashes, at the 

 778 



rate of 40 bushels per acre, with his turnip- 

 seed; and this he has successfully practised 

 for some years, so much is he in favour of 

 bringing the seed and the manure into imme- 

 diate contact. 



In proceeding to examine, as an instance of 

 one of the least likely substances successfully 

 applied by the drill, the properties of night-soil, 

 and the modes which have been adopted to 

 reduce its weight, without impairing its effect, 

 many reflections will suggest themselves to 

 the farmer. He will notice that such a pro- 

 cess, by producing it in the state of powder, 

 renders it capable of being readily drilled with 

 the seed ; and that the same remarks apply in 

 a great measure to the excrements of the farm- 

 yard, to whale-blubber, and to fish. The Essex 

 farmers find, that when sprats are mixed with 

 earth, finely divided, the mass, when these very 

 oily fish are quite dissolved in the mould, forms 

 a very powerful fertilizer, which is excellent 

 as a drill-manure for turnips. They tell you, 

 that the sprats lose none of their enriching 

 powers, even when thus kept mixed with earth 

 for some months. 



Even earthy manures may be advantageously 

 reduced in weight by exposure to the air, or by 

 the application of artificial heat. Chalk, I have 

 found by experiment, loses from 15 to 25 per 

 cent, of its weight by being thus deprived of its 

 water ; and a cubic foot of calcareous sand, 

 when thoroughly wet, contains, according to 

 M. Schubler, more than 31 Ibs. of water ; the 

 same measure of sandy clay, 38 Ibs. ; loamy 

 clay, 41 Ibs.; stiff clay or brick-earth, 45 Ibs.; 

 pure gray clay, 48 Ibs. ; garden-mould, 48 Ibs.; 

 and fine slaty marl, 35 Ibs. By exposing the 

 earths to an intense heat, their weight is still 

 further reduced by the loss of their carbonic 

 acid gas or fixed air; hence 100 parts of chalk, 

 for instance, when thus treated, lose very com- 

 monly 24 parts of water and 34 parts of car- 

 bonic acid ; so that 42 Ibs. of lime, when well 

 burnt, contain as much real earth as 180 parts 

 of chalk. All these facts are such as the cul- 

 tivator should be thoroughly acquainted with ; 

 for, in many cases, the earth which the farmer 

 removes might be previously very advanta- 

 geously dried, by exposure in spits to the action 

 of the atmosphere. Even the difference of 

 labour to the men and horses, between carting 

 them after continued dry weather and in wet 

 periods, is much more material than the culti- 

 vator commonly believes. 



My attention, however, will, in this place, be 

 principally confined to fertilizers of an organic 

 nature, and more especially to night-soil. 

 Night-soil has not, in any form, been employed 

 by the farmers of England to the same extent 

 as on the Continent, although it is certainly by 

 far the most powerful of the organic manures, 

 and the most easily rendered applicable by the 

 drill of any of the class. To this neglect many 

 causes have contributed. Its disagreeable 

 odour, certain vexatious fiscal regulations with 

 regard to its removal, to which I have before 

 alluded, and the erroneous modes of applying 

 it, either in excessive quantities, or mixed with 

 other composts in such proportions that its 

 powers could not be distinguished in the mass; 

 its semifluid nature requiring for its removal 



