348 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MAY P, IS '8. 



'I'lie iige of iniiacles will be tliouglit by some 

 who rend the siiljjoined coinmiinicatioii, nut to 

 liave passed. It lias »p|)Karp<l in S(!vcial |)a)ii is, 

 and we give it to our aijricultiiral readers as mat- 

 ter of curiosity, without |>resuming to ofter any 

 opinion on the siihjccl. Where discovery or im- 

 provemcrit shall stop, it is nnr for us to say. Tliat 

 a inetliod may be discovered of conv<;rtir.g any 1 

 vegetable matter in a short time into manure is 

 not unlikely ; but that the hulk of tlie:se suDslan- 

 ces in the process of decomposition should be so 

 greatly increased is not a iiratter of as easy com'- 

 prehension. That the .same process likewise : should 

 convert the mould or soil-itself into nianur e is as 

 extraordinary. That some very imy)ortai it im- 

 provement has been made.from the form in which 

 these statements are given; there is hittle doubt; 

 and though there is as little question of the • usual 

 «xag!s;eration in the case, we shall look f jrwanl 

 with a strong curiosity to farther informati on. A 

 universal compost to siij)ply the place < )f barn 

 unanure, ail^ at a cheap rate, wasiiiverited i in Eng- 

 land in 1828 ; ani'J we shnM m ^.'•iMe fiitui 'e nmn- 



r _;.,» an account of it. It 4M..<1o iibtei Jly con- 

 ineir gJ*^ an .■ 



itains the gieat elements of vegfiiah le gi -owth in 

 :abundance, and must j«-ove a consi deral jle ferti- 

 lizer of the soil, l<o whkb it .is apK'.licd ; but we 

 camiot leoro that it has realised a II the expecta- 

 tions or t.romises of its mvcMor. 

 JSIEW METHOD Of MAKSISG M.ANURE. 

 The following articl* on. anev/ met.luxl of inak- 

 jtip manure is from a foreign Journ al received at 

 ihe office of tlie Philadelphia N.atioi/.al Gazette. 

 To the Editor oj Ddl's ifeekly Mi-s sengcr. 



Corner of Half .Moon street, Picadilly, J 

 London, Dt cumber 30, 1837. ] 



Sir 1 lieg leave to hatid you a copy of a oros- 



^jectus relative to a new n-anure, wiiich I drew ii|? 

 in the course of last !=;»'h'^, [,[r t'i"; request of the 

 Earls of Leven and Melville, from the Report of 

 the Committee of the Academy of Agriculture tit 

 Paris, and from the certificates given to the inven- 

 tor by thirty-eight large landed proprietors in 

 France, testifying the value of his inveirtion. 



liOrd Leven considered, and in which opinion 

 1 bad the honor to concur, that the best mode of 

 giving the benefit of the discovery to the British 

 farmer would be, for a commiitee to be formed 

 for the purpose of collecting a subscription suffi- 

 cient to defray M. JauflVet's expenses to this 

 coimtry, for the purpose of his making experi- 

 ments before some person appointed for the oc- 

 casion. 



That an agreement should be entered into with 

 M. Jauffret, that should his invention answer the 

 desi-ription given of it, that he shoidd couuiiuni- 

 cate the secret by which he eflected the operation 

 for a sum of tnoney previously agreed upon, and 

 that experiments should be made with the manure 

 under diflferent circumstances, as to soil, &c. to 

 nsccitain its relative value with regard to other 

 tnanures, taking all things into consideration. 1 

 have the lionwr to be, sir, your very obedient ser- 

 vant, HUMPHREY GIBBS, 



Honorary Secreliiry of the Sinithfield Club 



Pros/iectus of a process for obtaining cheap and 

 valuable JUanitre, without the aid of Cattle, in- 

 vented hy,M. Jauffret of Jiix. 

 A method has been iliscovercd in France of 

 making manure as it may be wanted, without 

 cattle, in twelve days, and with great economy, 

 as appears from a report made to the coiranittee 

 of the Academy of Agriculiure at Paris, by M. 

 Chatelaiu, its secretary, who, with M. Cailleau, 

 president of that committee, M. de LaGerandicre, 

 President of the Academy of Agricidlure of Blois, 

 and the Marquis de Saint Croix, were appointed 

 to examine into the meiits of M. JaufTret's inven- 

 tion. 



■Ttiese gentlemen report, " that by a cheap 

 wash or lye, the ingndieuts of which are to be 

 found in all places, and which every cultivator 

 can make on his own land, all sorts of herbaceous 

 and ligneous substances, such as heather, furze, 

 brambles, and even the living dogstooth, can be 

 put into a state of rapid fermentation, and not 

 oidy these substances, but even earth itself, be its 

 nature what it may, can be converted into a valu- 

 able manure. 



" That the manure produced by this new sys- 

 tem is quite as valuable as the best horse litter ; 

 it's ert'ects are visible upon several successive 

 crops; and it can be obtained with perfect facility 

 at pleasure. 



"That iM. JauflVet supplied the Committee with 

 numerous and imdeniable proofs of experiments, 

 ranging over a period of nine years, in five com- 

 munes of the department of the Bouche.s-du-Rhone, 

 in which trials were made iiDon an i.viensive 

 iicale, ou different kinds of soils, and on various 

 seeds, plants and trees. The success of those 

 trials siMlpassed the most sanguine expectations, 

 as has been attested, 1st, by the Academy of Aix, 

 (annual public session 1835, at 38 and following 

 pages of the report ;) 2d, by the circidar of the 

 Jirefect of the Kouches-du Rhone ; 3d, by 38 cer- 

 tificates* from most respectable inhabitants and 

 farmers of that department, founded upon repeat- 

 ed experiments made by themselves and 4th, by 

 the detlaratiou of well informed proprietors of the 

 ,dej)artment of Vaucluse, wlio for years have at- 

 tentively watched the trials of the Jauffret ma- 

 nure. 



That in order to convince themselves more 

 thoroughly on the suSject, the committee wrote, 

 unknown to M. .laufTret, to .some imlividiials who 

 were most distinguished by their agricultural Bci- 

 ence, and who had given certificates to the inven- 

 tor, aiid that their replies, which are annexcil to 

 the report, are of so satisfactory a nature, as to 

 leave no doubt on the n.inds of the committee of 

 the importance of the discovery. f 



"The committee enter into the following de- 

 tails of the process : 



" By means of a cutting machine, the cost of 

 which is about 600 francs (£15,) and which, after 

 a careful examination, appeared well ailapted for 

 the pmpose, three men and a horse can prepare 

 180 quintals, or 7200 kilograms (about 7 tons En- 

 glish) of maninc jier day, and the machine is ea- 

 sily erected. Ten quintals of straw proiluced 40 

 quintals of manure — this is effected either l.y the 

 aildition of the lye, or by the fermentation dilating 

 the material operated on. 



"The Jauflret process admits of greater econo- 

 my as to labor. Cor the wooden cistern, and the 

 ingredients of which the ley is made, may he car- 

 ried to the field which is to he manured, and the 

 compost prepared on the spot ; and thus the car- 

 riage of the vegetable matter from the field to the 

 yard, and back again from the yard to the field, is 

 saved ; the eecape also of carbonate acid gas, one 

 of the most valuable component parts of manure, 

 which lakes p[ace during removal, is thus pre- 

 vented. The inventor asserts, moreover, that he 

 can vary the degree of fermentation, to suit the 

 defects or qualities of different soils ; and as he 

 can raise the heat caused by the fermentation as 

 high as 60 Reaumer (167 deg. Farenheit) his pro- 

 cess has the additional advantage of destroying 

 the germ of all noxious herbs, which might foul 

 the land. 



" That in considering this process, the commit- 

 tee were struck with the advantr.ge that might 

 arise from establishing manufactories, not only on 

 large farms, but near towns and villages, to which 

 every cultivator might bring his refuse vegetable 

 matter to he converted into manure. The cutting 

 machiiiK might be worked cither by horse, water, 

 or steam power. 



"The Janfliet process will be ailvantageous not 

 only to large proprietors, (by whom an expense 

 of 60L francs [£[o\ will scarcely be lelt,) but it 

 will be more important and useful to small fiirm- 

 ers, who can cut their weeds by hand, and prepare 

 a quantity as perfect as any niadft by the machine.* 



As to the conversion of earth into 



manure, any , 



one can make it without the help of the machine 

 invented by Mons. Jauffret, and the manure made 

 from earth by this new process, is not less valua- 

 ble than the compost. Tlius, those who have no 



* A printed copy of these certificates may be seen at 

 Messrs Thomas Gibbs & Co. Seedsmen and Nursery- 

 men to the Hon. Bnard of Agriculiure of Engbind, and 

 to tlie Board of .Agrtcnltnre of Sweden, corner of Half 

 Moon street, Piiraddly, L(mdon. 



f Mens. Ganthier de Vaucluse, who is about to pub- 

 lish a new .Atlas of Agriculture, says, (in print at Mar- 

 seilles, 1832) " M. JauH'ret, an intidligent farmer and 

 acquaintance of mine, possesses exclusively tli« valuable 

 power of converting, in less than a week, all vegetable 

 substances w bet ber dry or not, into dung of good quality, 

 without spreading ihein as later, or even siibinitting 

 tbein to Ibe Iread of cattle. The change is eflected, as 

 if* by enchantmei:t, by means of a ley, with whicli he 

 sprinkles the straw, herbs, leaves, plants of all kinds, 

 even woody stalks of a finger's thickness, previously di- 

 viding them to a certain extent by a very ingenious op 

 1 eratiun. Such is the action of the ley, tliat forty-eigbt 



hours after the matters are heaped, their fermentation 

 becomes, as it were, volcanic : volumes of smoke and 

 anroiince the decomposition at a consiilerahle distance • 

 and a poor and spent soil may, withoul del.iy, receive 

 in the form of an excellent manure, that wideli a week 

 before could have done nothing towards rescuing it from 

 a state of exhaustion.' 



Like all other interesting discoveries, this has been 

 the subject of fierce allack ; but experience has vindi- 

 caied the inventor. Following ihe example of many 

 landed proprietors, I determined upon uKikiug iri.il of 

 this imporlant manure, and 1 declare it equal to thai of 

 well fed horses. M Jauffret asserts that lie can at pleas- 

 iirn increase ihe dose, and even confer all properties re- 

 quired by the nalure of the soil <m which lie uses it. 



One single horse cart load of straw, or otiier dry ma- 

 terial, produces more than two of good dung. The in- 

 ventor charges 5 francs (2s. (id.) for each cart load : 

 probably to those who-elioiild efl'ect the operation them- 

 selves, the expense would be diminished by one-half. 

 The advantages ofsuch a process are incalculable. 

 * Mons. Jauffret stalis, the machine necessary for a 

 small farmer is only a barrel and a pail, and which can 

 be carried with ease from one part of the farm to the 

 other. It is set to work in the open air, wherever ma- 

 terials happens to be ; thus the fields that are so distant, 

 as to he seldom manured, may hv this manure be ren- 

 dered iiighly productive. The mixture is made without 

 fire, and every thing concurs to render it economical. ' 



