336 



and was confirmed in the conclusion he drew, and 

 from that time changed his practice. A celebrated 

 farmer near Lewes, in Sussex, made a similar re- 

 mark on the comparison between yard -muck turned 

 up after winter, and some not stirred, and con- 

 vinced himself, by repeated observations, that the 

 latter was most advantageous. In addition to these 

 cases, it is remarkable, that Mons. Hazenfratz, the 

 celebrated French chemist, from experiments made 

 on a different object, and with very different views, 

 drew collaterally the same conclusion. 



" A circumstance in favour of the Picardy far- 

 mers is, the continual transport of their dung to 

 their fields, rather than leave it to destroy itself 

 in the farm -yards, by waiting for fixed periods to 

 move it. By carrying it still fresh to their fit-Ids, 

 the heat of its first fermentation is employed in 

 heating the soil ; the little alkali which it contains, 

 instead of being dissolved in the farm-yard, and 

 carried away by the rain, remains in the earth and 

 improves it, if the alkali is useful to vegetation *. 

 The straw, yet entire, divides the soil better ; its 

 fermentation goes on less rapidly, is less advanced 

 when the seed is sown, and, consequently, the dung 

 is more in a state of furnishing a greater quantity 

 of carbonic acid, which appears, with water, to be 

 the principal aliment of plants." 



I have since been informed of a variety of other 

 cases, which seem to give much weight to this new 



* This if is remarkable. 



opinion^ 



