LIQUID MANURE. 



\faiet ...... 



Urea 



Phosphate of lime - 

 Muriates of poiassa and ammonia - 

 Sulphate of putassa - - - - 

 Carbonates of potassa and ammonia 

 Losa ....... 



Part-.. 



- 650 



- 4-0 



- 3-0 



- 15-0 



- 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 

 considerably hastens the vegetation of plants. 

 His experiments were made with the common 

 garden cress; and, in his 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 unmanured portion ; and 

 the use of the urine of the cow, so extensively 

 employed for grass lands, and in the garden 

 ami 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, of 1 

 part of solid and 25 parts absolutely fluid mat- 

 ters ; but if we only allow 1 part in 30 of this 

 immense mass to be composed of solid sub- 

 stances, then we have the large quantity of 

 more than 3300 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 

 ground, there is evidently a quantity of solid 

 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 

 crop of wheat to be raised on these 50,000 

 acres, that would be equal to the maintenance 

 (calculating upon an average produce of three 

 quarters of wheat per acre) of 150,000 persons. 

 London, too, is only one huge instance of this 

 thoughtless waste of the agricultural riches of 

 the soil of England ; from every other English 

 city, every town, every hamlet, is hourly pass- 

 ing into the sea a proportionate waste of liquid 

 manure; and I have only spoken of the solid or 

 mechanically suspended ina.tsrs of the sewer- 

 age; the absolutely fluid portion is still rich in 

 urine, ammoniacal salts, soda, &c., when all 

 the mechanically suspended matters have been 



LIQUID MANURE. 



separated from the other portions. According 

 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 s'urprised 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 

 organic matters its soot its carbonate of 

 lime and, above all, its urine, the forcing na- 

 ture of the ammoniacal salts which that fluid 

 contains, added to the presence of the other 

 matters which are 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 parts 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 

 lourishing to pines, causing them to assume an 

 unusually deep healthy green ; and for stoved 

 mulberry, vine, peach, and other plants, the 

 ate 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 

 wealthy and luxuriant appearance imaginable." 

 (Trans. Hort. Soc. vol. ii. p. 127.) 



In whatever way we view the question of 

 iquid manure, an abundant field of research 

 presents itself on every side: it is evidently an 

 'nvestigation likely to amply repay the culti- 

 vator for the labour he may be induced to be- 

 stow upon it. By such manures, nourishment 

 lor vegetation is more equally diffused through 

 :he soil, and becomes more speedily service- 

 able to the crop, than by any other mode of 

 cultivation. I have endeavoured, also, in this 

 article, to convince the farmer of what I have 

 long remarked in my own practice that a 

 much smaller quantity of manure, if uniformly 

 mixed with land, is sufficient for all the pur 

 poses of fertilization than is commonly be- 

 lieved. Such investigations must be of the 

 highest interest to the farmer and to the public 

 in general, for they relate to the increased pro 

 duce of the land of England ; and not only does 

 a fortunate experiment carry with it its own 

 reward, but even an unsuccessful one is not 

 without its advantages, it serves, at least, a* 



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