On Manures. 213 



I hope therefore, that a number of friends to agriculture 

 will give this species of manure a fair trial, so as to place its 

 importance and practicability in so striking a point of view, 

 as to promote its general adoption. 



Impressed with an idea of the utility of oily substances 

 as a manure, an eminent agriculturist, (Captain Barclay,) 

 has mixed whale-blubber with moss, and has found it a 

 most beneficial process. He formed a mound of moss, 36 

 yards long, 5 yards broad, and 4 feet high, and mixed with 

 it 18 tons of blubber. He afterwards added from 70 to 80 

 tons of dung to forward the fermentation. The expense of 

 this manure was only about L. 2 per English acre. 



Mr William Bell, of Queen Street, Edinburgh, has like- 

 wise made some very spirited and successful experiments, 

 to convert moss into a manure, by the application of dregs, 

 or coarse whale-oil. To make the moss ferment, 90 cubic 

 yards of dung, with 2 tons of that oil, were mixed with 900 

 cubic yards of moss, and it was proved to be a most valuable 

 compost. The crops of turnips were abundant, while the 

 expense was greatly inferior to that of dung (* os ). 



2. Calcareous Manures. 



This important class of manures, is more generally and 

 more correctly applied in this country, than in any other. It 

 comprehends a number of articles, as Burnt or calcined lime- 

 stone ; Pounded limestone ; Limestone gravel ; Chalk ; 

 Marls; Sea-shells ; Coral ; Soapers' waste ; and Gypsum. 



1. Burn^ or Calcined Limestone. Under this head may be 

 considered, 1. The advantages of this manure ; 2. Its disad- 

 vantages ; 3. The principles on which the fertility produced 

 by lime depends ; 4. The several sorts of limestone ; 5. The 

 mode of preparing it for use ; 6. The application ; 7. The 

 expense ; 8. The effects ; 9. The rules for its management ; 

 and, 10. Some remarks on the difference between caustic and 

 mild lime. 



1. Advantages of Lime. Though there are exceptions to 

 the rule, yet in general, it is confidently asserted, that unless 

 when a soil has by nature enough of calcareous matter in its 

 composition, for the purposes of vegetation, it can neither be 

 brought into its most fertile state, nor will other manures be so 

 useful as they would prove, if lime, or some other calcareous 

 earth, be not previously applied (* 3 ). When lime is spread 

 upon a moory soil, either naturally dry, or properly drained, 

 #ood herbage is produced, where nothing but heath, and 



