MANURES. 



MANURES 



diversity of their arrangements, are raade to 

 form the most different substances, and simi- 

 lar substances are produced from compounds 

 which, when superficially examined, appear 

 entirely different." And, as he well remarks 

 in another place, when speaking of the subject 

 of thi* article "The doctrine of the proper 

 application of manures offers an illustration 

 of an important part of the economy of nature, 

 and of the happy order in which it is arranged. 

 The fermentation and putrefaction of organized 

 substances, in the free atmosphere, are noxious 

 processes ; beneath the surface of the ground 

 they are salutary operations. In this case, the 

 food of plants is prepared where it can be used, 

 and that which would offend the senses and 

 injure the health, if exposed, is converted by 

 gradual processes into forms of beauty and of 

 usefulness." (Agr. Chetn. pp. 54309.) All 

 researches like these carry with them their 

 own reward ; for not only does a successful 

 experiment do so, but even an unsuccessful 

 one is not unattended with advantages : it at 

 least serves as a beacon to other cultivators, 

 and is sure to afford to the farmer that pleasure 

 and increased power which ever accompanies 

 the acquisition of knowledge. (Johnson on the 

 Fertilizers, p. 32.) See GASES, EARTHS, SALTS, 

 WATER, FARM- YARD MANURE, BONKS, CHALK, 

 LIMK, LIQ.VID MANURE, &c. 



Weight of a Cubic Yard of various Manures. 



Cwts. qr. Ib. 



Garden mould 19 3 25 



New dung 93 18 



Leaves and sea-weed .... 9 3 

 Water - - .... 15 3 



Compost of dung, with weeds and lime, 

 which had been once turned over in 9 



months --14 05 



(C. W. Johnson "On Fertilizers," p. 90.) 



MANURES, on rendering them more portable and 

 applicable by the Drill. The application of ma- 

 nures in a more concentrated form than that in 

 which they naturally present themselves for 

 the cultivator's service, was an effort reserved 

 for modern agriculturists ; an improvement 

 chiefly induced by the increase of population, 

 which almost compelled the farmer to force 

 into cultivation the poor inland soils of Eng- 

 land and the Continent : lands which could 

 only be enriched by fertilizers brought from 

 other districts, and from places where men 

 congregated together in large masses. This 

 necessity was, some years since, first felt and 

 acted upon by many of the large continental 

 cities, such as Paris, Berlin, Frankfort, and 

 some of the other chief German towns. The 

 contents of the cesspools were, in consequence, 

 collected ; their fertilizing matters were mixed 

 with drying, disinfecting substances, and when 

 thus reduced to powder, or into cakes, sold at 

 a considerable profit The enlightened con- 

 stituted authorities of these places felt that 

 they were, by so doing, conferring great and 

 important benefits not only on their fellow- 

 citizens, but upon the distant cultivator. They 

 did not confine their attention to the farmers in 

 their own direct vicinity; because they well 

 knew that those, in common with the imme- 

 diate agricultural neighbours of all large cities, 

 have a ready access to an abundance of organic 

 manures, since the cultivators so favourably 

 774 



situated carry their produce \\ ith facility into 

 such populous places, and return with their 

 carriages loaded with manure. And yet, when 

 the German and French authorities thus hus- 

 banded, thus rendered more portable, the 

 manure of their large towns, they made no 

 discovery; they merely practised what the 

 Chinese had preceded them in from time im- 

 memorial, and what, in Flanders, is an old and 

 long-cherished custom. The only improve- 

 ment which the citizens of Paris and Frankfort 

 have made is, that they form with their night- 

 soil an enriching powder; while those of China 

 and of Belgium still make theirs into cakes, 

 with a portion of either clay or marl ; so that 

 the powder of Paris can be either applied with 

 the drill or dibble, but the Chinese and Flem- 

 ings are obliged to dissolve theirs in water, 

 before it can be used as a liquid manure with 

 advantage. In England, however, notwith- 

 standing the example of our neighbours, little 

 or nothing has yet been done to render the 

 commonest manures, such, for instance, as 

 night-soil, more portable. The nightmen and 

 scavengers are still compelled to hurry away 

 their collections only at stated hours and in the 

 dead of the night; are fined for any neglect, 

 and harassed in all possible ways, rather than 

 that this, the most powerful of all the animal 

 fertilizers, should be preserved for the use of 

 the farmer in any way that might endanger the 

 olfactory nerves of the citizens. But an en- 

 dangerment upon sensitive noses is not essen- 

 tial ; the night-soil might be preserved without 

 any offence to the most sensitive. But this 

 manure has been hitherto little known or em- 

 ployed in this country ; its powers have been 

 misrepresented; all sorts of prejudices have 

 been created against it. I propose here briefly 

 to show, first, the composition and fertilizing 

 powers of various manures ; and, secondly, to 

 examine the modes which have been recently 

 adopted to render them inodorous and more 

 easily portable, so as to bring them within the 

 reach of even the farmer who has to contend 

 with the poorest, the most upland soils of 

 Britain, far away from its great towns. And, 

 although I confine my attention in this essay 

 chiefly to one fertilizer, yet there are other 

 manures, now well known to, and extensively 

 employed by the cultivator, whose powerful 

 action, when judiciously used in very small 

 proportions, well illustrates the truth of what I 

 have so often ventured to urge upon the far- 

 mer's attention, viz., that a much smaller quan 

 tity of manure, composed of any description 

 of organic decomposing, matters, is sufficient, 

 when applied in a skilful manner, to produce 

 more luxuriant effects than is commonly be- 

 lieved. The very great importance of apply, 

 ing fertilizers in immediate juxtaposition with 

 the young plant, even in very small propor- 

 tions, as by the drill, is only now beginning to 

 be considered with even patient attention ; and 

 yet there are many circumstances with which 

 the farmer is well acquainted, which ought to 

 convince, the most inattentive that such is the 

 fact. The small quantity of oil-cake drilled 

 with the seed; the few bushels of bones suc- 

 cessfully applied in the same way per acre ; 

 the woollen rags of the Berkshire farmers (half 



