MANURES. 



MANURES. 



Btoke, who had applied it by the drill with the | 

 seed, at the rate of 14 bushels per acre to a 

 portion of a field of turnips ; and, on another 

 portion, drilled three sacks per acre of crushed 

 bones, mixed with turf-ashes ; and, on a third 

 portion, with ordinary stable manure, says, in 

 February last, " It is impossible to distinguish 

 any difference between the three, some persons 

 fancying one part, and some another, to be su- 

 perior. In their early growth, the night-soil 

 had a decided advantage. The seed came up 

 as thick as rows of mustard-seed in a hot-bed, 

 and the turnips were hoed out within a month." 

 Mr. Beach adds a suggestion, which I think 

 highly worthy of the attention of the turnip 

 cultivators: "I am so well satisfied with it for 

 turnips, that I shall use a large quantity of the 

 night-soil powder this season. I shall also mix 

 10 or 12 bushels with a quarter of crushed 

 bones, which I am inclined to think will an- 

 swer well." I have recently been shown a 

 letter from Mr. Robert M'Crea, of Grange 

 House, near Londonderry, in which he speaks 

 of this manure in the highest terms, as a dress- 

 ing t'.>r turnips; those thus treated having car- 

 ried off last year the first prize offered by the 

 Londonderry Farming Society. 



A preparation of night-soil has been lately 

 imported into Scotland and the north of Eng- 

 land from Copenhagen, under the name of 

 Owen's animalized carbon, which has answer- 

 ed, when applied by the manure drill, very 

 well for turnips. Mr. James Waldie, in his 

 recent prize communication to the Ayrshire 

 Agricultural Society, describes it as a useful, 

 auxiliary manure, and as likely, in a great 

 measure, to supersede the use of bones, now 

 that the latter have risen to the enormous rate 

 of at least 3a. per bushel. He says, " One ton 

 of carbon, the cost of which is 3/., is sufficient 

 for an acre of land; and from experiments 

 which I have made this year, conjoined with 

 what I have observed of two successive crops 

 on a farm in this neighbourhood, where com- 

 parative trials were made with different ma- 

 nures, on a very extensive scale, it may be 

 inferred, that one ton of carbon is equal to 25 

 bushels of crushed bones." These experi- 

 ments are supported by the observations of Mr. 

 M. Milburn, of Thorpefield, near Thirsk, when 

 describing, in his report to the Yorkshire Agri- 

 cultural Society, the various fertilizers ad- 

 vantageously employed on light lands in the 

 cultivation of turnips; for, he observes, "Ani- 

 malized carbon has been used advantageously; 

 16 bushels per acre, when drilled, is the quan- 

 tity generally employed. Pigeons' dung is most 

 valuable ; rape-dust has been used successfully ; 

 malt-dust is useful as a top-dressing." There 

 is a chemical "seed manure" prepared by 

 Messrs. Hodgson and Simpson, near Wakefield, 

 which is applied, mixed with water, as a liquid 

 manure, or steep to the seed-corn, and seems, 

 from a communication with which they fa- 

 voured me in March, 1840, to be a kind of 

 secret preparation, composed principally of 

 saccharine matter, ammonia, common salt, and 

 nitre. This seed manure is applied according 

 to the following directions, instructions which 

 might be advantageously followed in the use 

 of other fertilizers: "Dissolve 28 Ibs. of this 



manure in a pail, by adding water in small 

 quantities, stirring it at the same time, until 

 the mixture is of the consistence of thick 

 cream ; it is then to be poured over the quan- 

 tity of seed intended to be sown on an acre of 

 land, and the whole repeatedly turned over, so 

 that it appears one uniform mixture ; it is then 

 to be spread out thin on the floor to dry for 10 

 or 12 hours, and mixed with a sufficient quan- 

 tity of soot, or any kind of dry ashes, to render 

 it sufficiently friable to be sown by the hand or 

 by the drill." The quantity thus directed to be 

 applied per acre, is certainly very small, and 

 yet, according to the testimonials which I have 

 seen, the effect it produces is considerable. 

 Mr. Milburn, of Thorpefield, in one of these, 

 tells us : "A new principle in the application 

 of manure has been developed in the use of 

 the chemical seed manure, which, by applying 

 a chemical composition to the seed itself, not 

 only secures immediate effect in the precise 

 situation required, but highly economizes the 

 quantity necessary. I have great pleasure in 

 detailing a very successful experiment with it 

 on a barley crop. The field had grown a corn 

 crop the preceding year part of the field was 

 dressed with a coating of fermented farm-yard 

 dung the remaining part with the chemical 

 seed manure, at the rate of 28 Ibs. per acre. 

 The result was, that the barley sown with the 

 chemical manure exhibited a decided supe- 

 riority over the rest of the field, in colour, 

 healthiness, and general appearance, and main- 

 tained that superiority to the time of cutting, 

 so much so, that it lodged considerably more 

 than the rest of the field." 



Various modes besides those to which I have 

 alluded, have, at different times, been suggested, 

 by which night-soil might be rendered more 

 concentrated and more portable. Simply dry- 

 ing it has been attempted with some success; 

 but though by this means about 70 per cent, 

 of water is driven off, yet, at the same time, a 

 considerable portion of ammoniacal and other 

 gaseous matters are vaporized : thus the ma- 

 nure is impoverished, while the stench of the 

 operation is intolerable. Then, again, it has 

 been mixed with lime, in the way recommend- 

 ed by Davy; but judging by my own experi- 

 ments, and those of my neighbours, I am fully 

 persuaded that this is not the most economical 

 way of using night-soil. The lime certainly 

 dissolves, and partially decomposes it, but the 

 fertilizing effect of a given weight of night-soil 

 mixed with lime is clearly not so great as when 

 a similar weight of it is used either by itself, 

 or mixed with some merely drying odour-ab- 

 sorbing substance. There are several prepa- 

 ration of this kind made in large quantities in 

 London, such as those of Mr. Clarke, and of 

 Mr. Lance, the author of the Golden Farmer, all 

 of which, I believe, are excellent manures ; but 

 I have not had an opportunity of examining 

 any of their manufactures except those of the 

 London Manure Company, and of the Messrs. 

 Poittevin. The preparation of these gentle- 

 men is the same as that so successfully carried 

 into effect by M. Payen at Paris : it combines, 

 and successfully too, the great object of driving 

 off the water of urine and night-soil by a gentle 

 heat, after all its gaseous matters have been. 

 3 U 781 



