No. 6. 



Artificial Manures. 



183 



To the Editor of the Farmers" Cabinet. 

 Artificial Manures. 



Sir, — It would indeed appear somewliat 

 unaccountable that the manulacture of pou- 

 drette has not yet been undertaken at Phila- 

 delphia; the business seems to succeed else- 

 where, and our citizens are not behind those 

 of any other part of the Union in capacity, 

 either as reg-ards ingenuity or capital, and yet 

 the thing slumbers. Is it because there are 

 yet doubts as to its intrinsic value, when 

 compared with other articles in more general 

 use? or a reluctance to engage in a concern 

 which may be considered somewhat deroga- 

 tory to the " genius of the age ]" Whatever 

 be the cause, there is no question of our being 

 behind the Eastern States in a matter which, 

 as you remark, is essentially interwoven with 

 our agricultural interests. At the same time, 

 it is but fair to add, the comparative trials in 

 other countries between this article and seve- 

 ral others called artificial, with those, the pro- 

 duce of the farm-yard, &c., have not been in 

 favour of the former ; and I am tempted to 

 copy, from the last number of the Quarterly 

 Journal of Agriculture, a scries of experi- 

 ments which have been made in Scotland, 

 with a view of ascertaining the actual worth 

 of these articles, when brought into competi- 

 tion with those which have been long known 

 amongst us. The detail of the experiments 

 forms an essay, for which the premium of 

 twenty sovereigns was awarded by the High- 

 land and Agricultural Society of Scotland, 

 to Mr. W, Adam, of Aberdeen : the subject 

 being, " On the comparative value of certain 

 common and artificial manures for raising 

 grain and green crops," and thus commences: 



" Being desirous of making the cost value 

 of the artificial manures used in the experi- 

 ments bear some proportion to the value of 

 those manures in common use, I procured as 

 much of each of these kinds of artificial ma- 

 nures as I thought would, including freight 

 and cartage, be equal in value to a given por- 

 tion of the common manures, and proceeded 

 accordingly. 



Clark's desiccated compost, £4 10 



Sea freight and cartage 139 



£5 13 9 



Lance's carbonized humus £3 18 9 



Freight and cartage, 139 



jE5 2 6 



Owen's animalized carbon, £i 13 



Freight and cartage, ] 3 9 



£5 5 



Poittevin's disinfected manure, £3 15 11 



Freight and cartage 13 9 



£4 19 8 



As it was my object to have a comparative 

 trial made of the value of all these manures, 



not only in reference to one another, but also 

 in reference to the other manures after-men- 

 tioned, for oats as well as turnips, I divided 

 each of these artificial manures into three 

 equal parts, and applied them on two fields 

 of oats and one field of turnips, as follows: 

 viz. one-third of each kind on half an acre of 

 each of the two fields intended for oats, and 

 one-third of each kind on a quarter of an acre 

 of the field for turnips. 



Tlie ^ acre with Clark's compost, cost XI 17 11 



" Lance's humerus, 1 17 6 



" Owen's carbon, 1 17 



" Poittevin's disinfected com., 1 19 2 



" street-dirt 2 2 



" well rotted cow & horse-dung, 2 2 



" bone-dust, 2 2 3 



soot 19 2 



From the very marked difference of the 

 crops on the different parts of the field on 

 which these manures were spread, no one 

 who saw them when growing, or after they 

 were cut, could for a moment hesitate as to 

 which had the superiority, or at least in pro- 

 nouncing that the crop raised by the soot, 

 and cow and street manure, had greatly the 

 advantage over that raised by bone-dust, and 

 the artificial manures; the soot producing by 

 far the best crop on each of the two fields of 

 oats before-mentioned, although the cost of it 

 was only about half that of most of the other 

 manures, the crop continuing to keep before 

 tiie others during the season, the oats being 

 distinguished by a healthier and darker green 

 colour at the distance of a mile. The crop 

 was stronger and ranker in the straw, and 

 the bulk when cut was much larger, than on 

 the ground manured with either cow-dung or 

 street-dirt, and at least a third more bulky 

 than that on the ground manured with bone- 

 dust, and the artificial manures. The crop 

 after cow and horse-dung, and that afler the 

 street-dirt, seemed much alike whilst grow- 

 ing, and both were very superior to that after 

 tiie bones and artificial manures, although in- 

 ferior to that after soot ; but after being cut, 

 the bulk and richness of the crop seemed to 

 be in favour of the street-dirt over the horse 

 and cow-dung. The crops after the bones 

 and artificial manures were all alike inferior, 

 and did not seem much, if any, better than 

 that which was produced on a small part of 

 the ground adjoining, which had been sown 

 without any manure at all ; but if there was 

 any difference, I should say the bone-dust 

 had rather the advantage of the artificial 

 manures. 



As to the turnip crop, the same quantity 

 of each of the artificial manures was applied 

 to a quarter of an acre, as was applied to the 

 half 3icre of oats, the cost being 



i acre manured with Clark's compost, 

 " Owen's " 



" Lance's " 



" Poittevin's " 



£1 17 11 

 1 17 

 1 17 6 

 1 19 2 



