276 



On saving Liquid Manure. 



Vol. VI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 On saving Liquid Manure. 



Mr. Editou, — We hear a great deal about 

 dressing land with nitrate of soda and salt- 

 petre — does it ever occur to our agricultur- 

 ists, that they possess in the liquid manure of 

 the told and cattle-yard, these, as well as that 

 other fashionable ingredient, ammonia, in 

 great abundance 1 all which, however, we 

 witness passing off down the ditches and high 

 roads every ram that falls, without an attempt 

 to put a slop to the ruinous waste ; while the 

 owners are toiling perhaps for many miles 

 to the city, to bring back an expensive aiticle 

 in leached ashes — mixed, perhaps, with one- 

 half street-dirt, or burnt horse-dung, white 

 and light, purchased at almost any price! 

 The thing is preposterous, and if a tradesman 

 were guilty of anything so perfectly thought- 

 less and wasteful, his friends would prognosti- 

 cate his ruin at hand ; but agriculture can 

 bear it ! 



Although I am now in trade, my business 

 lies much abroad ; and having once been en- 

 gaged in husbandry, I can see very clearly, 

 now that I have only to overlook my friends, 

 that some of them go a strange way to work. 

 The last time I called on my old acquaint- 

 ance, Jacob Solly, 1 had enough' to do to steer 

 clear of a black stream of liquid manure, 

 caused by a couple of days of rain, which I met 

 issuing forth from his cattle-yard on its way 

 to the ditch, vvhicli must have robbed his ma- 

 nure-heap of about a tenth of its value; but 

 I could not prevail upon him to sink a cistern 

 to collect it, from whence it might be carried 

 en to his pasture land about his house — no — 

 that was a labour he did not covet, nor did he 

 believe there was much good in it, any how. 

 Now, as I know that he reads the Cabinet, I 

 wish to apply a gentle shove to him on the 

 subject; and if you will give a place to the 

 following extracts from an account of a set of 

 experiments made in England, with the view 

 to test the real value of an article which 

 seems to obtain but little notice in this coun- 

 try, you would oblige me and benefit him, and 

 perliaps many others. The experiments were 

 made by a Mr. Milburn, who says: 



" An experiment was made on pasture, soil 

 .sandy, subsoil sandy, gravel, and perfectly 

 dry; two-thirds of the field were manured 

 with rotten chaff and horse-manure well rot- 

 ted, in the month of February ; tiie remaining 

 third being watered with the cihtern liquor. 

 The spring appearance of the grass was alto- 

 gether in favour of the liquid manure, both in 

 the colour, height, and thickness of crop. The 

 field was depastured with cows, who ate up 

 the grass on this part bc^tbre they touched the 

 other; and it still maintains its preference, is 

 close and even as a lawn, while the other part 

 of the field it; quite neglected. From hence 



it 18 inferred that some principle has been 

 supplied to the plants by this liquid manure, 

 much more favourable to the development of 

 their characteristic qualities, than on the re- 

 mainder of the field ; animals always choos- 

 ing such plants as are in the greatest perfec- 

 tion : and there is no doubt, had the grass 

 been cut for hay, a most decided superiority 

 would have been manifested, on the piece 

 dressed with cistern liquor. 



The next experiment was made on a mea- 

 dow, on which the liquid was applied in Feb- 

 ruary ; it had fermented, and a black residuum 

 had formed very liberally. A part of the field 

 was manured with a very rich mixture of 

 ashes and night soil; on the remainder, no 

 manure whatever: soil, a cold, grey sand; 

 subsoil, adhesive silt, rather spongy, and not 

 effectually drained. The precise spot where 

 the liquid manure was applied, could be 

 marked to a yard, up to the time of mowing; 

 and the grass was equally good with that ma- 

 nured with the ashes and night-soil — indeed 

 it had so overgrown as to injure the surface 

 of the meadow very considerably. 



The last experiment was on a sandy soil, 

 where potatoes and Swedish turnips or Ruta 

 Bagas had been foddered, until the 13th of 

 May — here the grass was eaten very close, 

 and on a light, burning soil, little cut of grasa 

 could be expected after that period ; but that 

 part which was dressed with the liquid ma- 

 nure from the cistern, scon gave out a rich, 

 luxuriant herbage, and contained three times 

 as much grass as any other part of the field. 

 A friend of the writer spreads the drainage 

 of his yard over a paddock or piece of patture, 

 which he mows every year for soiling his 

 draught-horses, and finds it gives three times 

 as much grass as any other part of his farm 

 of equal extent, although the soil is a cold, 

 retentive clay. 



For very small farms, the writer recom- 

 mends simply a scries of casks to be placed 

 in the ground, well rammed with clay, with 

 a conducting-pipe or drain over the whole; 

 these would form a cistern at a very trifling 

 expense, the advantage resulting therefrom 

 being of incalculable importance. He knows 

 an instance of a small receptacle of this kind, 

 where the owner has but one pig, but by itd 

 means, he manages to grow astonishing crops 

 in his garden, his produce being earlier, and 

 far superior to his neighbours.*' 



Now, I presume there can be no objection 

 to the use of soda, saltpetre, ammonia, and 

 many other far-famed and far-fetched articles 

 of manure, but I can see very clearly that 

 many of my friends are indulging in their 

 " propensities" in this way at great expense 

 and labour, while they are neglecting the 

 means and opportunities wliich lie within 

 their reach, and often under their very nosetf I 



