AND HORTICULTURAL R K G I S T E R . 



N. E. FARMER. 



F.\RM.YARD M.\NURE. 

 Of all fertilizers, tlio most universal nnJ most 

 luatilo to the cultivator, and yet Ilic most jeiier- 

 ly miimaiiageii, is farm-yard manure, which has 

 >en often well described as the farmer's sheet an- 

 lor. From this fertilizer, man must have derived 

 me benefits, even before he was compelled, by 



increase of population, to cultivate and manure 

 land. It is the earliest mentioned of all ma- 



ircs ; although at tirst the only notice we meet 

 th of dun<T and ilunghills, describes them as ein- 

 3yed in Palestine for fuel ; and, to this day, in 

 i barren deserts of the East, that of the camel, 

 [cr being dried in the sun, is the only combusti- 

 5 article the natives possess. This manure is 

 ticed by the earliest agricultural writers. M. P. 

 ito tells us, in his fourth chapter, to "Study to 

 ve a large dunghill ; keep your compost careful- 

 ; when you carry it out, scatter it and pulverize 

 ; carry it out in the autumn. Lay dung round 

 3 roota of your olives in autumn." And In his 

 th chapter, " Divide your manure; carry half of 

 the field where you sow your provender; and 

 there are olive trees, put some dung to their 

 tta." And in chapter 37, he advises the use of 

 X«ons' dung for gardens, meadows, and corn land, 

 well as amurcit, which is the dregs of oil ; and 

 :omnicnds the farmer to preserve carefully the 

 ng of all descriptions of animals. These direc- 

 ins were given one hundred and fifty years B. C. ; 

 ler a lapse of two thousand years, the direction 

 ithe farmer must still be the same ; little can be 

 ded to the advice of Cato, when he said, " Study 

 Ibave a large dunghill." Virgil is still more par- 

 ular: in his description of fertilizers, he nien- 

 ns with common manure, ashes, (Georg. 1. i. v. 

 I ) Pumice-slone and shells, (I. ii. v. 34G-.yO, and 

 >4)53.) Varro (c. ;}8, 1. i.) mentions many kinds 

 animal manure, and is particularly minute in 

 enumeration of the dung of birds, and includes 

 m that of blackbirds and thrushes kept in avia- 

 Colutnella (I. ii. c. 5) advises the cultivator 

 to carry out to the field more dung than the la- 

 ers can cover with the soil the same day, as the 

 losure to the sun does it considerable injury; 



1 he enumerates (I. ii. c. 15,) as well known fer- 

 'crs, night-soil, the e.xcrements of birds and 

 ep, urine, (especially for apple trees and vines,) 

 gs of oil, the excrements of cattle, the as?, the 

 it, of pigs ; ashes, chopped stalks of the lupine, 

 hop,) leaves of trees, brambles, &.C., and mud 

 n sewers or ditches. 



Of the early inhabitants of Britain, Pliny tells 

 (b. 17, c. G, 7, 6,) that they highly valued the 

 of marl for particular soils, but on other lands 

 1 never employed it. We are told that they 

 w corn, and lived in houses thatched with straw, 

 ch would necessarily require an attention to 

 ilizers. They had also, according to Strabo, 

 ography, p. 300,) gardens, which could not have 

 a cultivated, neither could their apple orchards 

 e flourished without manure. Tlie Roman in- 



vasion taught the original inhabitants bettor modes 

 of using fertilizing materials; but their Saxon suc- 

 cessors, in all probability, knew less of agriculture 

 than the natives. War and fighting was Ihcir pro- 

 fession; they held the husb.'iiidman in much con- 

 tempt. The confusion attenilant upon liritish, 

 Saxon, and Danish inroads, still farther retarded 

 in England the progress of agriculture, which nev- 

 er prospers in a poor, disturbed country. The very 

 laws made in those days for its eucouragemenl, 

 show to what a low ebb the art of cultivating the 

 land was then reduced. Thus it was provided, 

 that if any one laid dung upon a field, the law al- 

 lowed him, if the owner of it consented, to use it 

 for one year; and if the quantity of manure con- 

 veyed was inconsiderable quantities, so as to ren- 

 der it necessary to employ a cart, he was then en- 

 titled to use the land for three years; and if any 

 person, with the consent of the owner of the soil, 

 folded his cattle on it for the space of a year, he 

 was then entitled to cultivate it for four years for 

 his own benefit. All these laws were evidently 

 for the purpose of encouraging the better manuring 

 of the land ; but the necessity of such an indure- 

 ment betrays the poverty of the farmers of those 

 days, and the insufficiency of their live stock. In 

 the middle ages little was done fur agriculture. 

 The monks, after the introduction of Christianity, 

 were the most learned and skillful in the best 

 modes of applying manures. They early excelled 

 in their gardens. The population of England in 

 those days, however, was too limited to require the 

 cultivation of inferior soils. 



In 1570, Conradus Herebashius, a learned Ger- 

 man, published his four books of Husbandry, which 

 were translated by Googe ; he mentions the seve- 

 ral descriptions of manure employed in his time. 

 His book is a strange mixture of good sense and 

 superstition. He speaks of the dung of poultry 

 and pigeons with much approbation; but repro- 

 bates the use of that of geese and ducks. Human 

 fa!ces, he says, when mixed with rubbish, is good ; 

 but by itself, is too hot. Urine he commends high- 

 ly for apple trees and vines. Of the dung of ani- 

 mals, he mentions that of the ass as first in order 

 for fertilizing effects ; then that of sheep, goats, 

 oxen, horses ; lastly, s» ine, " very hurtfull to come, 

 but used in some places for gardens." Green ma- 

 nure was used in his days. " Where they have no 

 store of cattle, they used to rnend their ground 

 with straw, fern, and the stalks of lupines, and the 

 branches luid together in some ditch. Hereunto 

 you may cast ashes, the filth of sinks and privies, 

 ^•c." And again he says, "The weeds growing 

 about willow trees and fern, &c., you may gather 

 and lay under your sheep." He speaks of the prac- 

 tice of placing turfs and heath, clods in heaps 

 with dung ; much in the same way as Lord Mead- 

 owbank has advised with peat. He also advises 

 the placing of the same turf parings in sheep folds. 

 " This is also to be noted," says our author, " that 

 the doung that hath lyen a yeere is best for corne, 

 for it both is of sufficient strength and breedeth 

 less weedes ; but, upon meadowe and pasture you 

 must laye the newest, because it brings most 



grasso, in Februarie, the moonc incrcasinf^, for 

 that is the best time to cause increase of grasso." 

 When, however, the manure is applied fur corn 

 lands, " looke that the windc be westcrlcy, and 

 the moonu in the wane." 



The manure coiiimonly furnished by the form- 

 yard is compomidod of a mixture of animal and 

 vegclttblo substances, of the putrefying straw of 

 various descriptions of grain, mixed with Uie fa?ce» 

 iind urine of cattle, horses i-.nd swine. The mix- 

 turu forms no new substance, neither docs the pu- 

 trefaction which ensues add to Itie bulk of the 

 dung; oil the contrary, it causes a considerable 

 loss of weighL 



There have been many arguments and much 

 difference of opinion among cultivators, with i-e- 

 gard to the advantages of employing dung in a 

 fresh or in a putrid state; and, as is too often the 

 case, both parlies have run into extremes, the one 

 side contending for the prop.ietyof employing it 

 fresh from the farm yard, the other contending that 

 It c.nniiot well be loo rotten. 'I he mode employed 

 by Mr Coke is the medium between these errone- 

 ous practices ; ho found that the employment of 

 the fresh dung certainly made the dung go much 

 farther; but then n multitude of the seeds of va- 

 rious weeds were carried on to the land along with 

 the compost. lie has, therefore, since used his 

 manure when only in a half putrefie' state, called 

 short dung by farmers ; and hence the seeds are 

 destroyed by the eficcts of the pu: refaction, and 

 the dung still extends much farther than if suffer- 

 ed to remain until quite putrefied. 



Putrefaction cannot go on without the presence 

 of moisture ; where water is entirely absent there 

 can be no putrefaction ; and hence, many fanners 

 have adopted the practice of pumping the drainage 

 of their farm-yards over their dutig heaps; others 

 invariably place theui in low damp situations. 

 Tins liquid portion cannot be too highly valued by 

 the cultivator. The soil where a dunghill has 

 laid in a field is always distinguished by a rank 

 luxuriance in the • succeeding crop, even if the 

 earth beneath, to the depth of six inches, is re- 

 moved and spread with the dunghill. 



The controversy, too, winch once so keenly ex- 

 isted, us 10 the state of fermentation in which dung 

 should be used on the land, has now pretty well 

 subsided. I here is no doubt but that it cannot be 

 applied more advantageously than in as fresh a 

 state as possible, consistent n ith the attainment of 

 a tolerably clean husbandry, and the destruction 

 ofthe seeds of weeds, grubs, &c., which are al- 

 ways more or less present in farm-yard dung. — 

 These are the only evils to be apprehended from 

 the desirable employment of this manure in the 

 freshe.st stale ; for otherwise the loss of its most 

 valuable constituents commences as soon as ever 

 fermeTitalion begins. This was long since demon- 

 strated by Davy, whose experiments jjl have often 

 seen repeated and varied. He says, "1 filled a 

 large retort, capable of containing three pints of 

 water, with some hot fermenting manure, consist- 

 ing principally of the litter and dung of cattle: I 

 adapted a small receiver to the retort, and connect- 



