FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARRIER. 



"The great product," adds Young, "which 

 attends the addition of urine to dung, affords a 

 very important lesson ; which is, to manage 

 dunghills in such a manner as to save, if pos- 

 sible, every drop; this is a point too much 

 neglected, and, indeed, by most common farm- 

 ers very little attended to." (Annals of Agr. vol. 

 ix. p. 652.) 



A rood of a poor blue pebbly gravel, which 

 yielded turnips in 1770, in June, 1771, was 

 marked in spaces for manures, each of two 

 square perches, by Arthur Young, and sown 

 with oats. 



" I observe," adds Young, " that dung in ge- 

 neral much exceeds all the manures but bones, 

 the superiority of which is very remarkable. 

 (His following remarks show how little was 

 then known of bones as manure.) It is a ma- 

 nure not uncommon in this neighbourhood; 

 all are brought from London, where are people 

 who make it their business to collect them and 

 break them in small pieces for those who boil 

 them for the grease : this operation, one would 

 suppose, would leave them of not much value, 

 but the contrary is the fact. When I found, by 

 this and other trials, that their effect was so 

 very great, I bought all I could get; the price 

 10s. 6rf. a wagon-load, at London 96 bushels, 

 which by the time they were on the farm (for I 

 generally went on purpose for them) amounted 

 from 25s. to 30s. a load. Five-and-twenty cart 

 loads in this trial being superior to 50, was 

 owing to the latter quantity being too great a 

 dressing. For this miserable soil, which with 

 a summer fallow yielded but 30 bushels, to 

 produce 63 by a moderate manuring of bones, 

 thows their amazing effect. 



"The advantage of using fresh long dung," 

 adds Arthur Young, "appears very strong ; nor 

 can any thing be clearer than the benefit of re- 

 taining the drainings of the dunghill. The 

 lime without mixture appears to more advan- 

 tage than it has generally done with me; but 

 even here, in the profitable view, it has done 

 nothing." (Ann. of Agr. vol. iii. p. 67 77.) 



The turf composts have nothing decisive in 

 their effect. The urine appears to have the 

 superiority. A portion of the same soil was 

 planted witV potatoes: the following table gives 

 the result: 

 464 



As manures are often applied in cubic yards, 

 it might be well for the farmer to know the 

 respective weight of various measures of ma- 

 nures. (Fanner's Mag. vol. xiv. p. 102). 



cwt. qrs. Ibo. 



- 19 3 25 

 7 



A cubic yard of garden mould - 



water ..... 15 

 compost of dun?, with weeds 

 and lime, which had been 

 once turned over in 9 mos. 14 



new dung - 



- 9 3 



leaves and sea-weed - - 9 



There have been many excellent suggestions 

 for the improvement of farm-yard manure. The 

 late Mr. Blakie published an excellent essay, 

 Df which I have largely availed myself. Mr. 

 Kirk, of Preston Mains (Quart. Journ. of Agr. 

 vol. viii. p. 483), has suggested that the straw 

 produced by different soils should be kept se- 

 parate, and, when made into manure, applied 

 to different soils. Mr. Pearson has very pro- 

 perly (Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. ix. p. 299), con- 

 demned the careless way in which farm-yard 

 manure is often flooded with the rain water 

 from buildings, &c. Mr. Baker is an advocate 

 or using farm-yard manure in its freshest 

 >tate. (Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. vii. p. 584, and 

 ix. p. 597.) Mr. W. Sim has reported several 

 comparative experiments at Drummond, in 

 Ross-shire, with barley. The soil a good deep 

 oam on a gravelly subsoil ; the previous crop, 

 peas. (Journ. Royal Agr. Soc. vol. i. p. 419.) 



A treatise recently published at Lowell, Mas- 

 sachusetts, by Dr. S. L. Dana, under the title 

 of " Muck Manual," contains much highly in- 

 teresting matter relative to the preparation and 

 qualities of farm-yard and other kinds of ma- 

 nures. 



FARRIER (Fr. ferrier; Lat. ferrarius). A 

 person who forges horses' shoes. As the errors 

 committed by ignorance in this art were the 

 cause of many diseases in the feet of horses, 

 it naturally followed that farriers were resorted 

 to for the cure of them. Hence the whole of 

 the diseases of these animals came by degrees 



