IS^fj.] 



F A R M E 11 S ' REGISTER 



21 



ditieri'iU ;uiima!« in the course of a tlu,v, fiir the 

 diversify of tlioir ?ize and ol" tiie i<ind of Ibod on 

 which they are supported woidd deprive such a 

 calculation, upon a broad scale, of any jirelension 

 to accuracy. It has however been supposed that, 

 i( fed upoa oonmion white turnips, ihey yield about 

 two-thirds of the weight. — or about a o-alion for 

 every 12!brf.*— besides the water winch they 

 drink; and we have seen, that the cow which we 

 have mentioned, produced, when led on two-thirds 

 of brewers' o-rains, only 451hs. of dunir out of 

 1261bs. of food, the greater portion of winch was 

 accordincrly voided in urine. It must also he re- 

 collected that the cattle upon the farm to vvlfudi we 

 have alluded, in Flanders, consisted of only forty- 

 four head, of which eight weve liorses, ihd during 

 the greater part of the v.'inter upon dry food, yet 

 they not only converted the entire produce of the 

 .straw and stable-dung into well-prepared compost 

 of the usual description, which could not have 

 been effected without a large supply of urine; 

 but the savings Irom the stalls also furnished an 

 additional quantity of liquid manure of the richest 

 kind, equal to theculture of exhaustinir crops upon 

 21 acres of ground. It has been calculated too, 

 in Scotland, that the urine of six cows or horses 

 will enrich a quantity of eartli sufficient to top- 

 dress an r]ngli-'.i acre of grass-Iand;t but, consid- 

 ering the trouble and the prejudice attending it in 

 this country, it is probable tiiat the best way of 

 preparing it for use is that recommended by a con- 

 siderable farmer in Peebles-shire, who applies it 

 in the following manner. He has a pit, about 12 

 yards square and 4 feet deep, which he fills with 

 ridi earth, or any such matters that may be at 

 hand, and the urine of the cattle which he liieds is 

 conveyed to the pit by a sewer, and spread Cjual- 

 ly over it. After this compost has receivetl the 

 greatest portion of the urine, which is about the 

 latter end of April, when it is ready fin- the spring 

 sowing, it is carelully turned over, when it shows 

 symptoms of complete saturation; and in this way a 

 large quantity of rich manure is raised, equal to 

 about 239 cart-loads, 40 of which, per Scotch acre, 

 when applied to the ground, he finds equal, if not 

 superior, in its eflects to his best dung. The 

 expense of filling the pit only amounts to 

 £6.t 



Throughout a great part of the rich low-lands 

 in Tuscany, the manure is chiefly procured from 

 night-soil, and preserved in large cisterns, in which 

 it is siceped for several months in about three times 

 its quantity of water; though some farmers con- 

 tent themselves with a large ditch, which is ap- 

 plied to the same purpose as the cistern. Into this 

 every kind of putrescent matter is also thrown, 

 and the putrid water thus produced is found to 

 possess qualities of a very fertilizing nature. It 

 is however principally used for garden ground, 



* The wein;ht of p'lra distilled water is 8lbs. per 

 gallon: that of urine is heavier, in proportion to its 

 composition. 



t General Report of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 520. We 

 cannot, however, avoid noticin;; the loos > manner in 

 which this calculation is supported; for the quantity of 

 urine produced by six cows, or by the same number of 

 horses, would ba materially different. 



t Mr Alexander. Seethe Survey of Peebles., p. 

 169. 



which is thus watered every fortnight; and the 

 plants, but more jjarticularly onions, thus acquire 

 a prodigious size, without being in the least affect- 

 ed by any bad flavor arising from the manure. 

 Neither is its sn)ell, though mo.^t oflensive for a 

 a (hiy or two after it has been laid upon the land, 

 ever known to occason any prejudicial eMijct to the 

 heaJih of the peasruitry.* 



In a paper addressed to the Board of Agricul- 

 ture by Baron Schulenhurgh, one of its honorary 

 members, he states that in Sweden the urine is 

 collected from the farm-offices, and pumped over 

 dung and other substances while in a state of 

 compost. The contents of the privies are likewise 

 regularl}^ collected by scavengers in all the great 

 towns, and carried, in many instances, to the dis- 

 tance of forty miles from Stockholm. It is then 

 diluted with water, and laid chiefly upon meadow- 

 land; but it is also applied to green crops, and the 

 effects on the soil, though gradually diminishing, 

 are generally considered to last during four 

 j'ears.f 



In Switzerland, also, the misiwasfier, or manure- 

 water, is sprinkled over the surface of the mea- 

 dows by means of large casks and j)erlbrated wa- 

 ter-troughs, immediately alter each cutting of the 

 scythe, which makes the grass to spritig np again 

 with great vigor in a very short time; and it i? well 

 known that water, rendered fetid by the .solu- 

 tion of vegetable or animal substances, is essen- 

 tially .serviceable to grass-land, as may he com- 

 monly perceived by its effects when thrown upon 

 the fields in the neighborhood of stagnant ponds 

 in which flax has been steeped. It is indeed high- 

 ly [ji-obable that manures which are intended to 

 act immediately upon the sod wdien laid on its sur- 

 face, will have more effect upon grass-land when 

 applied in a fluid state than in a solid form. It 

 cannot, however, he denied that there are many 

 instances on record in which no such consequences 

 of its application have been remarked. Marshall 

 relates an experiment conducted on his own farm 

 with considerable care, in which the common 

 drainage of the farm-yard — of course includinor 

 rain-water — was laid upon two separate fields of 

 young tares and clover, grown upon a sandv loam, 

 at the rate of about 2-500 ijallons per -^cre: the li- 

 quor was of middling strenffih, very high colored 

 and foul, but not puddly, and it was carried on in 

 wet weather. No perceptible advantage was, 

 however, observable on either those or the ensuing 

 crops;f but the weather was not favorable. Some 

 farmers, indeed, think these washings from the 

 flu'm-yards, though of a brown color, are yet, in 

 most instances, so diluted with rain, as not to be 

 worth the expense of carriage;§ though other ac- 



* Simonde, Tableau de rA^riculturc Toscane, p. 35. 

 Derbysh. Rep., vol. ii. p. 209. 



t Communications to the Board of A'tIc, vol. i. 

 art. xxxi. 



X Minutes of Agriculture, Digest, p. 2.3. 



§ It is stated in the Rutland Report by Mr. Parkinson, 

 that the black water thus drained away from manure, 

 has been tried frequently on land, without effect. He 

 himself tried it, by having a dunghill made with a grip 

 cut round it, with a descent to a kind of reservoir at 

 one end of the hill, for this water to drain into, and 

 then had it thrown back on that end, thinking thereby 

 to preserve the loss of strength in the manureT But he 



