212 On Manures. 



manure cannot be more usefully employed. It is calculated, 

 that if fish could be obtained for L.10 per ton, it would be the 

 cheapest of all manures, for if mixed with earth, that quantity 

 would manure five statute acres. 



Fish Oil. No kind of manure has better claims to the at- 

 tention of the farmer, and has received so little, as oil. The 

 advantages which may be derived from its use, have been 

 completely ascertained, and cannot be too strongly recom- 

 mended to the attention of the farmer. Even a small quan- 

 tity will enrich a large mass of dung or compost, or any me- 

 dium by which it may be applied to the soil. Its effects, 

 also, are immediate. When judiciously applied, it is per- 

 haps the cheapest and safest substance that can be em- 

 ployed for a crop of turnips, which, on light soils, is the basis 

 of successful agriculture. Its efficacy was tried, by mixing 

 20 bushels of sifted coal ashes, and 2 gallons of whale oil, 

 and comparing the turnips produced by that mixture, with 

 a crop that had been manured with 20 cubic yards of dung. 

 The progress of vegetation in both crops, was nearly the 

 same. The leaves of the turnips manured with dung, were 

 rather more luxuriant, but no difference could be observed 

 in the bulk of the roots. 



The comparative expense of the two manures was as fol- 

 lows, per statute acre : 



Per acre. 



20 cubic yards of dung, at 6s. per yard, L. 6 



32 gallons of oil, at 2s. 4d. per gallon, L. 5 4 8 



Expense of ashes or fine mould, O 16 



408 



Difference in favour of oil per statute acre, L.I 19 4 



The use of oil as a manure, is likely to be productive of 

 the following important advantages : 1. With such a com- 

 mand of manure, abundant crops might be raised upon soils 

 which are now considered unfit for cultivation. 2. Besides 

 being less expensive than dung, oil manure may be of use, 

 by checking the attacks of the fly on turnip, and destroying 

 vermin in the ground. 3. With this manure at command, 

 a great addition may be made to our rural population, and 

 immense numbers employed in the cultivation of the soil, 

 who are now devoted to the precarious and unhealthy em- 

 ployments of manufacturing industry; and, 4. It would 

 greatly encourage the whale fishery, and furnish employ- 

 ment to a number of ships and seamen, objects of much mo- 

 ment to a country, to which naval power is of such essential 

 importance. 



