FARMERS' REGISTER— MANURING. 



377 



these maladies, is partly owing to the abundant 

 use of those ashes.* 



" When completely analysed, perhaps we may 

 be enabled to procure an artificial compound ma' 

 nure, equally efficacious ; or it may be found that 

 clay ashes, now so successfully employed by Mr. 

 Craig of Cally, Mr. Boyd of Merton-hall, and 

 other agriculturists in Wigtonshire, may in some 

 respects, answer the same purposes. 



" Mr. Young informs me, that whilst the crops 

 of clover were abundant, the succeeding crops of 

 wheat were equally good. If, therefore, by the 

 use of these ashes, our former crops of clover can 

 be restored, a double advantage will be obtained. 

 The saline substances in the ashes may also con- 

 tribute to destroy the wire- worm, and in that way 

 may protect the crops of wheat from injury. 



" In a celebrated experiment made in France, 

 wheat sown after a moderate crop of clover was 

 indifferent ; after fallow was good, but after a great 

 crop of clover that had been gypsumed, it was, in 

 the language of the report, superb. The reasons 

 are obvious. No insect can exist under so suffo- 

 cating a crop as an abundant one of clover; and 

 the roots of the clover, when abundant, furnish a 

 great quantity of manure for the wheat. It ought 

 to be a rule in farming, to sow oats after a mode- 

 rate crop of clover, but wheat after a large one. 



"I do not know any means by which so great 

 an improvement can be so rapidly, and so gene- 

 rally introduced, and at so moderate an expense, 

 as by the importation of Dutch ashes ; and it gives 

 me particular pleasure, that it is likely to promote, 

 in a peculiar degree, the interests of the spirited 

 and intelligent farmers of the county of Norfolk, 

 to whom this species of manure is fortunately so 

 accessible. 



" In Switzerland, and other countries where these 

 ashes cannot be had, they make use of gypsum, or 

 the sulphate of lime ; but from the best informa- 

 tion I have been able to obtain, there is no compa- 

 rison between the two articles, the Dutch ashes 

 being greatly superior, and much more certain, the 

 effects of gypsum being precarious." 



ON THE FLEMISH SYSTEM OF MANURING. 



From Sinclair's AgricuUm-al State of the Netherlands. 



" The Flemish farmers are peculiarly distin- 

 guished by their great attention to manure. It is 

 a principle with them, that the fertility of the soil 

 entirely depends on the riches you give it, and that 

 a farmer cannot be too attentive to the collection 

 and application of this source of wealth. The 

 more opulent farmers likewise pave, and line with 

 bricks, the receptacles for their dung, which is 

 thus kept constantly plunged in a mass of liquid 

 matter. The fibrous parts of the vegetables are 

 in this way completely decomposed, and (bur tons 

 of this manure go as far as five collected and kept 

 with less precaution.! 



" The following is a list of the manures made 

 use of in the neighborhood of Lisle. 



* It appears by the analysis of the turf, (whence the 

 Dutch ashes are derived,) by the Abb6 Marci, that the 

 salts are found in the bituminous parts of the peat ; and 

 fortunately great quantities of peat, full of bitumen, are 

 to be found in the Hebrides. 



I Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. 

 J. p. 238. 



Vol. 1—48 



" 1. The dung of cattle and horses, with the 

 straw; 2. ashes; 3. lime; 4. the urine of animals, 

 collected with care in brick cisterns; 5. the cakes 

 of rape and hemp seed,* reduced to powder in a 

 mill, and which is sometimes thrown into the urine 

 cisterns. This last sort of manure, on account of 

 its strength, is scattered about in small quantities, 

 fifteen days before the seed is sown, that it may 

 not prove injurious to the plant. 6. The sour wa- 

 ter obtained by washing the tubs of starch-makers. 

 This is considered to be a very weak manure. 



7. The urine of cattle fattened at the distilleries ; 



8. the dung of pigeons; 9. that of sheep, gathered 

 by young children along the sides of the roads ; 

 10. street dung ; 11. marie ; 12. the refuse of horns, 

 a manure as effectual the second as the first year ; 

 13. night-soil purchased from scavengers. The 

 price of this article is three-pence, to the scaven- 

 gers, per ton, and twice as much to the inhabitants 

 of the country. A wagon-load of this matter, 

 drawn by three horses, costs only twelve francs, or 

 10s. sterling. The town of Lisle, however, alone 

 produces as much of this sort of manure, as would 

 sell for about 4200Z. a-year. The night-soil of an 

 hospital there, containing 1800 souls, is let for 3300 

 francs, or VSKl. 10s. per annum. 



" In order to increase the quantity of manure, 

 not only horses, but cattle, and even sheep, are 

 kept in stables during almost the whole year ; and, 

 that nothing may be lost, the stables and cow-houses 

 are washed with water, which is conveyed into 

 cisterns, or thrown into the dunghill. 



" Great attention is also paid to cover the dung. 

 When it is spread on the surface of a field to be 

 ploughed, after a furrow is made, a person with a 

 fork or rake goes before the plough, and throws 

 from the surface, into the furrow, the manure upon 

 as much soil as the plough is likely to turn over, 

 which is thus effectually covered, and prevented 

 from being exposed to the atmosphere. This 

 should be done in all cases, and not restricted to the 

 potatoe crop, as in this country. 



" The Baron de Serret has ascertained, that 

 powdered rape-cake, strewed over the surface of 

 the ground, destroys la taupe grillon (gryllo talpa,) 

 so injurious to kitchen-gardens; and he is per- 

 suaded that every insect of the same species may 

 be destroyed by the same means, f 



" But the great improvement that has taken 

 place, in regard to manure, is, its being applied in 

 a liquid state. For that purpose, the urine of cat- 

 tle and horses is regularly collected into cisterns, 

 that none of it may be lost. Mr. Mondez has five 

 cisterns at Frasnes, fit to contain 230 metres 

 (about 250 English yards in capacity,) for receiv- 

 ing the urine of 68 cattle, of different ages, and 32 

 horses, young and old. This quantity of urine 



+ Cakes of flax-seed are destined for feeding cattle 

 and sheep. 



t "The use of oil in vegetation also, is very great. 

 When the cuttings of gooseberries are planted, it 

 should be done in a limip of clay mixed with cow-dung, 

 and a few drops of train oil ; and when yoimg thorns 

 are planted in a poor or sandy soil, they will thrive bet- 

 ter, if theii' roots are dipped in oil. Near the first turn- 

 pike going to Mile-End, there is an artificial manure 

 sold, supposed to be the sweepings of the dry-salters in 

 Thames-street, mixed with the refuse of those places 

 where the blubber of whales is boiled ; one bushel of 

 which, it is said, is equal to twenty-eight of common 

 ! manure." 



