No. 7. 



Suggestions on the Use of Manures. 



207 



top boards of the lowest part of these drains, 

 were near two feet below the surface. 



The whole of this work appears to have 

 been done very similar to the plan laid down 

 in Stephens' Book of the Farm, as now be- 

 ing republished in Skinner's Farmer's Li- 

 brary. By this mode of improvement in a 

 few short months, an unsightly, and other- 

 wise useless and unhealthy bog is reclaimed, 

 the land cleared off and ploughed, and now 

 the wheat is growing most luxuriantly. Re- 

 cently, hollow tiles for under-drains have 

 been used by some, and they bid fair to come 

 into general use. They are about twelve or 

 thirteen inches long. They are made in 

 Cecil county on the farm of David Taylor, 

 and sold at $11 per thousand. Mr. Taylor, 

 who is a neighbour of mine, and lives on the 

 Maryland side of Mason and Dixon's line, 

 has several thousand feet of drain made with 

 those tiles. Tiles for the purpose of drain- 

 ing are made in Wilmington, I think by 

 W. Lovel. The cost of under-draining sunk 

 sufficiently below the reach of the plough, 

 say eighteen inches, costs 25 cts. per rod, 

 exclusive of materials, whether of tile or 

 plank. 



From all that I have seen of draining, I 

 think Bryan Jackson's is the best done, and 

 if others think so, he will be deservedly en- 

 titled to the premium. 



This is a subject which I think of great 

 importance to the people of this state. Every 

 acre of waste land that can be and is so re- 

 claimed, is just so many acres added to our 

 territory; and besides this, it adds to the 

 beauty, health and wealth of the state. 

 Respectfully and truly yours, 



J. Jones. 



Communicated for the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Su^estious which may assist in decid- 

 ing whether Manures are more effica- 

 cious Avhen "ploughed in," or used as 

 a "top-dressing." 



By Dr. Hare, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in the 

 University of Pennsylvania. 



Communicated verbally, at a meeting of the 

 Philadelphia Society Jor promoting Ag- 

 riculture, on the 2n(l inst. 



It has been a question whether manures 

 are prone to rise or descend, and consequent- 

 ly whether it be better to employ them as a 

 top-dressing, or to turn them under the soil 

 by the plough. Before discussing this ques- 

 tion, it would seem expedient to consider 

 the meaning of the word manure, originally 

 derived from manus, which is the Latin word 

 for the hand. Evidently the word manure 

 may mean anything which the hand of man 



may so associate with a soil as to increase 

 its fertility. Compounds, or aggregates, 

 which have this qualification, owe their effi- 

 ciency either to ingredients which they con- 

 tain, or to products which they generate by 

 fermentation, by a gradual union with the 

 oxygen of the air, or reaction with other 

 bodies previously existing in the soil or the 

 atmosphere. The gradual union with the 

 atmospheric oxygen is also called oxidation, 

 slow combustion, or eremacausis ; the last 

 mentioned name has lately been given by 

 Liebig, from Greek words of similar import. 

 The word rotting, is ordinarily applied to 

 the changes thus more scientifically desig- 

 nated. Among the results of the processes 

 thus alluded to, are various carbonaceous 

 products called mould, or more scientifically, 

 humus or geine, with certain acids alleged 

 to result from the latter. There also results 

 ammonia and carbonic acid, which having a 

 great tendency to combine with each other, 

 are usually united, forming, of course, car- 

 bonate of ammonia: add to these sulphates, 

 carbonates, and phosphates, either of potash, 

 soda, lime, or magnesia, with free silicic 

 acid, exemplified in its perfectly pure state 

 by rock crystal : oxides of iron likewise are 

 universally present, and together with char- 

 coal, may contribute to fertility by attract- 

 ing ammonia. Surely no chemist can, in 

 allusion to this list of reagents, conceive them 

 all, or any one of them, as prone invariably 

 either to rise into the air or to descend into 

 the soil. Either carbonic acid or ammonia, 

 when free, would escape into the air, and 

 when united as a carbonate, are still vola- 

 tile. Yet either may be mixed or combined 

 with the other ingredients of the congeries 

 called earth. Ammonia especially unites 

 with the aluminous or clayey portion into 

 which it is carried by rain. Carbonic acid 

 combines with water, and so does sulphuric 

 acid. But whether united with water only, 

 or with various bases, as, for instance, those 

 of soda, potash, or lime, either are more or 

 less soluble, and must tend to descend with 

 water, unless arrested by absorption or de- 

 composition. The earthy manure, such as 

 slaked lime, carbonate of lime, phosphate of 

 lime, silex and silicates, form a part of the 

 soil, and of course are not likely to descend 

 or to rise, their reciprocal coherence being 

 much more powerful than any counteracting 

 nfluence arising from difi^erence of specific 

 gravity, causing one to subside relatively to 

 another. Enough has been said to show, 

 that both ammonia and carbonic acid are 

 less liable to be lost when liberated under a 

 covering of moist earth, the clay of which 

 has an affinity for ammonia, while the water 

 attracts both. 



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