162 



The Doctrine of Special Manures. 



Vol. XII. 



some degree, but by no means to the extent 

 imasj^ined. We are in the habit of con- 

 sidering the successes of British agriculture 

 without remembering two great points, that 

 the farmers of that country expend annually 

 for one article of manure, bones, derived 

 from foreign countries the prodigious sum of 

 $3,000,000 without considering the home 

 supply ; that guano, nitre, plaster, salt, and 

 lime are employed at such rates as to be- 

 come a still greater charge: and secondly, 

 that the corn laws under which their agri- 

 cultural prosperity was fostered was a pre- 

 mium of 53 cents a bushel for wheat, or 

 upwards of ^10 an acre, by wliich this sys- 

 tem of manuring was paid. Had it not been 

 for the mineral and foreign manure, does any 

 one believe that the agriculture of that coun- 

 try would have prospered ? In Norfolk, a 

 poor county originally, now one of the most 

 fertile in England, it is the foreign manure 

 much more than any other cause which has 

 raised the farming. The contiguous port of 

 Hull received in 1835, 25,700 tons of foreign 

 bones in the year. No extra stock is kept 

 in Flanders to supply manure, but that eco- 

 nomical people resort to the cities and to 

 other expedients. 



In the foregoing remarks my design has 

 been more to induce our timners to tliink 

 upon the subject, than to make an estimate 

 of the cost of yard manure. The scene of 

 my agricultural experience is not the State 

 of New York, but central Virginia, and I 

 cannot therefore speak with certainty, but 

 rely upon the representations of others. The 

 price of home-made manure in this State, 

 in the river counties, is estimated at more 

 than the cost in the city of New York with 

 carriage and handling; this becomes in 

 Dutchess county equal to 62| cents for a 

 single horse load of about 25 bushels de- 

 livered at the wharf. It is customary to 

 add twenty or more loads of this manure to 

 the acre for corn, at an expense, with labour, 

 of nearly $20. If I am not correctly in- 

 formed, I trust the reader will proceed with 

 me, using his own calculations, but this esti- 

 mate cannot be far from the truth, when it 

 is remembered that the greater part of our 

 intelligent farmers shrink from the expense, 

 and have arrived at the conclusion, that for 

 a man of limited means, the exhaustion of 

 the soil is the most profitable system of farm- 

 ing. 



The fermentation of yard manure is in no 

 way different from that which occurs in 

 other forms of organic matter placed under 

 similar circumstances. The process is in- 

 deed a peculiar form of chemical decomposi- 

 tion or molecular change, by which the ele- 

 ments present, take on new combinations ofi 



a more permanent character. Water, car- 

 bonic acid and ammonia, are the principal 

 resultants of this change ; whilst heat is an 

 incident. Practical men are altogether car- 

 ried away by this phenomenon, regarding it 

 as something occult, and beyond any solution 

 of science, whilst indeed it is a process so 

 simple and manageable, that the most igno- 

 rant may be taught in a few minutes to con- 

 trol or modify it. So far as I can make out 

 the origin of the peculiar respect of farmers 

 for yard manure, it seems to depend on this 

 mysterious change. I think that Judge 

 Buel and many others, have assisted to en- 

 grafl on agriculture a sentiment to the effect, 

 that fermentation is the sheet anchor of the 

 farmer." How far preconceived ideas and a 

 want of knowledge of the process of fermen- 

 tation have influenced these writers, will 

 appear from the following considerations. 



The agricultural world has been shaken 

 by the contentions of those who advocated 

 the use of long manure, and those, who de- 

 nouncing this practice, have set their de- 

 pendence on short or well rotted manure. 

 Both these partizans have placed implicit 

 confidence in the action of fermentation ; 

 but one set have in truth recommended such 

 manure as was undergoing this change, 

 whilst the latter prefer dung (well rotted,) 

 which has long ceased to be in a state of 

 fermentation. So that whilst in their essays 

 they have denounced any thing but fermen- 

 tation, they have uniformly used manure not 

 undergoing this change. So soon as the 

 dung-hill ceases to give out considerable 

 heat, fermentation has stopped, and every 

 practical man knows, that in six, ten, or 

 twelve months, when the manure is tho- 

 roughly broken and short, there is no shade 

 of heat in it. Other excellent farmers who 

 have nailed on their standards the dogma 

 oi ^^ fermentation " practice and recommend 

 plans for the management of manure in 

 which fermentation is completely arrested. 

 This is the result when yard manure is com- 

 posted with lime. In nearly all forms of 

 compost into which lime, salt, or ashes are 

 introduced, fermentation is made impossible, 

 and yet every body knows that this is a com- 

 mon practice. 



The contrary position, that fermentation 

 has nothing to do with the success of yard 

 manure, is much more susceptible of proof. 

 Not only are the preceding remarks calcu- 

 lated to shov^ this, but numerous other con- 

 siderafions establish the same point. But 

 whatever may be the condition of the manure 

 whilst in heap, writers have, without excep- 

 tion, failed to consider the effect of scatter- 

 ing it over the land, and mixing with the 

 soil. The moment the manure is so dis- 



