LIQUID MANURE. 



slightly to the fertilizing powers of the liquid, 

 and yet they all materially hinder the even 

 distribution of the manure. 



The expense, per acre, of such an applica- 

 tion of liquid manure, I thus estimate, sup- 

 posing the cow-herd to be employed: 



8. d. 



Three tons of cow or other fresh dung - - 18 

 Labour in mixing and occasionally stirring it 



with from 20 to 25 tons of water - - -020 

 Carting, and spreading it on the field - - 8 



180 



If it shall occur to the farmer that the quan- 

 tity of solid manure thus added to the soil will 

 not, in reality, much exceed two tons per acre, 

 and that this is, in appearance, a very small 

 allowance, I would remind him that the quan- 

 tity thus conveyed consists of the soluble or 

 richest portion of the manure, and is, in fact, 

 the extract without any of the straw, or other 

 inert residuum usually carried on to the soil ; 

 besides, it is a very erroneous, though common 

 conclusion, that to produce fertility a manure 

 must be used in large quantities. I have ob- 

 served in this paper that a flooding with river 

 water, so productive of heavy crops of grass 

 in the water meadows, does not carry on to the 

 land more than 2 tons per acre of animal and 

 vegetable substances ; and in the successful 

 experiments of the late Lord Somerville, at 

 Fairmile, with whale blubber, not more than 

 a ton and a half per acre were applied. The 

 Essex farmers find three-quarters of a ton of 

 sprats amply sufficient ; and 2 cwt. per acre of 

 gypsum is the ordinary successful allowance 

 for grass land. The exact evenness, therefore, 

 with which a manure is spread over the land 

 is a highly important consideration as regards 

 the economy of manures. There is no com- 

 monly cultivated plant which more delights in 

 liquid manure than the potato. It naturally 

 luxuriates near to wet ditches : on plots which 

 have received the drainage of a dunghill it 

 grows with the greatest rapidity. I have in- 

 variably found that, to any liquid mixture in- 

 tended as a manure for potatoes, the addition 

 of 5 or 6 bushels of salt per acre is productive 

 of great good, both as regards the quantity and 

 quality of the potatoes. 



On clover leys intended for wheat, the liquid 

 should be turned into the soil as early as pos- 

 sible after it is spread; and if this operation is 

 performed in moist, cloudy weather, a very 

 material advantage will be perceptible in the 

 succeeding crop. The warmth of the sun is 

 certainly prejudicial to the thinly-spread liquid 

 manure, composed of finely-divided animal and 

 vegetable substances. 



Of the tanks for receiving or preparing the 

 liquid manure, I may remark that I have al- 

 ways found them best made of flints or bricks 

 set in good mortar or Parker's cement ; they 

 may be bedded in clay, but I would not recom- 

 mend the use of clay for the brickwork, since 

 worms are sure eventually to penetrate through 

 it; and I advise the shape to be something like 

 a decanter, larger at the top than at the bottom, 

 in the manner introduced at Eastbourne and in 

 (Cornwall, chiefly by the advice of Mr. Davies 

 filbert. 



730 



LIQUID MANURE. 



Mr. Milburn has given the annexed estimate 

 for cutting, walling, plastering, and covering a 

 tank of the following dimensions : Length 

 within, 13 feet 6 inches; width, 6 feet 6 inches; 

 depth, 6 feet, equal to 19 cubic yards. 



8. d. 



Cutting at 3d. per cubic yard - - 7 7 



Walling, including bricks and mortar - 6 8 



Plastering and cement - - - 16 



Covering and flags - - - - 2 15 



{Trans. High. Soc.vol.ix. p. 280.) 



10 6 6 



This would be a tank sufficiently capacious 

 for a farm of 150 to 200 acres. 



To the presence of a large proportion of 

 urine, the richest of liquid fertilizers, must be 

 chiefly attributed the luxuriant effects produced 

 , by the liquid manure, as prepared on the Con- 

 | tinent, and from the use of the sewerage mat- 

 ters of large towns, as so strikingly proved in 

 the case of the Craigintinny water-meadows, 

 near Edinburgh, where the drainage is em- 

 ployed in the state in which it issues from the 

 sewers, and from its use several crops of the 

 most luxuriant grass are annually obtained. 

 "All urine," said a late distinguished chemical 

 philosopher, "contains the essential elements 

 of vegetables in a state of solution." By a 

 careful analysis, human urine in its fresh state 

 was found, by Berzelius, to contain the follow- 

 ing substances : 



Parts. 



Water 93-300 



Urea (the peculiar animal matter of urine) 3-010 

 Sulphate of potassa ... - 0'371 

 Sulphate of soda ----- 0-316 



Phosphate of soda - 



Common salt ------ 0'445 



Phosphate of ammonia - - 0-165 



Muriate of ammonia - 0150 



Lactate or acetate of ammonia - ~J 

 Lactic or acetic acid - I 1-714 



Animal matter, soluble in alcohol 

 Inseparable urea j 



Earthy phosphate (earth of bones) with- 

 fluate of lime - - - - - 



Uric acid ' 



Mucus of the bladder - 

 Silica (earth of flint) - 



100- 



Thus it will be seen that there is hardly a 

 single ingredient found in urine which is not 

 either a direct food for vegetation, or furnishes 

 by its decomposition a supply in another form; 

 for in it are thus detected the ammoniacal salts 

 of the dunghill, the phosphate of lime of bones, 

 as well as of many cultivated vegetables, and 

 abundance of easily decomposed animal mat- 

 ters. 



The urine of the horse is nearly as rich in 

 animo-vegetable matters ; its composition, ac- 

 cording to the experiments of Fourcroy and 

 Vauquelin, are as follows : 



Parts 

 94-0 

 0-7 



Water and mucus ---- 



Urea 



Carbonate of lime (chalk) 



Carbonate of soda "' 



Benzoate of soda - 



Muriate of potassa - - - - - 



100- 



The following are the constituents in that of 

 the cow, as found by Professor BranHe : 



