20 



FARMERS' R E C; I S T K R . 



[No. 1 



is possible that, in llie, former way, a more com- 

 plete decomposition of the materials may be se- 

 cureJ, and that thus now conibinaJions ol' nutritive 

 matter may be loinieil, of the precise ellec-ts ol 

 wiiich we "are io-norant, yet, in our usaa! method 

 of preparation, when properly ioaducied, noihing 

 ehoald be lost: the h(iiii.i drained from the dung 

 should be collected (or further use; and it is only 

 upon such a calculation of the char^'es, as wei! as 

 experience of the etibcts of the manure, tliat a 

 fair conclusion can be drawn regarding its real 

 value.* 



There is, perhaps, no part of the world in 

 which the preparadon and the practical apidicalion 

 of vegetable and animal maniu'e is so well under- 

 stood as ill China; but, owing to i'.s ovcrilowing 

 populaUon, almost the whole of the labor is per- 

 ibrmed by man, by which the nurnl^erof working 

 animals is so much reduced, that night-soil forms 

 the principal dependence of the farmer. It is ex- 

 tensively employed in a dried state, and is sold, as 

 an article of commerce, throughout the empire, in 

 the tbrm of cakes, mixed up with one-third of 

 their weight of marl. It is, however, in its liquid 

 state, as urine, that it is chiefly used, in combina- 

 tion with other substances, the account of which, 

 as furnished by a gentleman who was long resi- 

 dent in the country, is too curious to be omit- 

 ted. 



Into a cask or jar is put a collection of putrid 

 animal substances, consisting of flesh, fish, blood, 

 &c.,to which is added a certain quantity of urine, 

 but the vessel is not completely fil ed. A man- 

 darin, or officer of government, then attends, who, 

 upon the vessel being closed, affixes his seal, and 

 in which state it must remain tor six months at 

 least. When this, or a longer period, hasela[)sed, 

 the mandarin removes his seal, and grants a certi- 

 ficate as to the quality of the preparation, which 

 is shown by the proprietor, who cries it through 

 the streets as a manure for gardens, and it is sold 

 jn quantities as small as an Elniz;!!sh jniif. Before 

 using, it is always diluted with four or five times 

 its bulk of water, and it is extensively used for 

 garden-crops, but universally in drills. T!ie wri- 

 ter adds that he was intbrmed by several intelli- 

 gent Chinese, that human urine, thus pre[)ared, 

 forms a fourth part of all the manure employed in 

 China, and which is never used until it has reach- 

 ed a hijih state of putridit3\ 



That an article considered of so mu(di impor- 

 tance in that country should in this, where agri- 

 culture has arrived at such great perfeclion, be so 

 much neglected, is not easy to be accounted for. 

 The quantity of urine voided daily by an individ- 

 ual of moderate size has been shown, b)- a sf^ries 

 of experiments, to amount to about half a gallon, 

 whicii, if due attention was paid to the collection 

 of it, would accordin'/ to the Flemish mode of its 

 application, be a su(li(;ient manure tor half a rood 

 of ground. Urine, when suihciently diluted with 

 water, forms a (bod hiohly conductive to the 

 growth of plants; it is, indeed, thought to contiuii 

 the essential elements of veiri^tables in a state of 

 solution;! but its state of putrefaction requires ."Tcat 



attenlio;!. Tliu.'', it nuiy observed that, in the hot 

 montlis of sununer, the p;isture Avhere the urine 

 of cattle fails becomes marked by a rich dtuk 

 green when rain liills soon after; but it" the dry 

 weadier continues, the developement of the aui- 

 moiiiacal salts, aris'.ng from the ; utrefliction of the 

 urine, then occasions it to burn up the grass; yet, 

 on tlie cou;rary, an excess of moisture de[irives it 

 entirely of elli^ct. Thus, the whole of the urisie 

 li'om a dwrliing-house litiving been dnily thrown 

 on a piece of p'asture during three months of the 

 winter, it was found in the following summer to 

 difi'er but little from the state of the rest of the 

 field — it having sufi'ered too much dilution from 

 the rain to be ca|,>able of putrefaction. But, in 

 the following June, a week's urine being fiut into 

 a jar, and covered with a slate, where it remained 

 until it had completely undergone that stage, was 

 then mixed with four times its amount of water, 

 and, when sprinkled at proper times on the same 

 quantity of pasture, it soon occasioned a luxuriant 

 vegetation.* It produces similar effects on green 

 vegetalile crops — nourishing them when applied 

 in a diliited state, butscorchiiio: them and destroy- 

 ing their tender herbage so efrectually when un- 

 mixed, as to impede their growth. Tiiere is in- 

 deed but little doubt that nutritious mtxnure of any 

 kind may be carried to an excess which becomes 

 prejudicial to vegetation, particularly in its early 

 stages. Naismith instances the steeping of three 

 peas for twenty-four hours in a teacupfui of strong 

 dung-juice, and three in plain water, each three 

 were (;lanted half an inch deep in separate flower- 

 pots filled with garden-moiild, and the liquid in 

 wdiich they had been steeped poured into the pots 

 over them. Those which had been steeped in 

 plain w'ater appeared above ground thirty hours 

 before the others. Both advanced, but those in 

 the dung-juice had the most weakly appearance. 

 When the plants were about four inches high, the 

 lower leaves of those fed by the dung-juice itjll off; 

 iuid in about four weeks after, the plants died, 

 though they were daily vv'atered, while those to 

 which the water only had been administered con- 

 tinued healthy. t The haulm of a potato, too, the 

 growth cf which was pretty well advanced, fell off 

 soon after it had been well wetted with urine in- 

 an tidvanced stage of putref;ic:ion, and even the 

 root itself was found reduced to a pulp. J It is, in 

 fact, of a scorching quality, and its application to 

 growing crops is not advisable during hot weather, 

 unless mixed with a large proporiion ofsinqde 

 water: of course it V\'ill not operate in the like 

 manner upon fallow land, and it may be applied 

 whenever the ground is in a fit state to absorb it 

 retidilv, but much of its effect may be lost if it be 

 not laid on at the time of sowinir. 



There is probably no species of manure so gen- 

 erally neglected, and yet so deserving of attention; 

 for although tlie largest portion of what is pro- 

 duced in most farm-yanls is there necessarily ab- 

 sorbed by the litter, and consequently profitably 

 applied, yet large quantities are constantly allowed 

 to run to waste. VVe have no means of ascertain- 

 ing the amount of urine that may be voided by 



• PrincipesRaisoiinr's d'Acricidtiirp, tomo ii. i5 612; 

 and note of tiie translator, tlie IJiroii do Crude n' 

 319. • ' ' 



t Sir Humplirey Davy, Lectures, p. 257. 



* Farmer's Magazine, vol. xx. p. 132. 

 t Ibid., vol. vii. p. 301. 



X Essay on Manures: Appeniliv to the Gi^n. Rep. of 

 Scotland, vol. ii. p. 108. 



