Journal of the Roi/al Agricidtiiral Society. 81 



sides built of brick, and the bottom paved : they are of various dimensions, 

 according to the number of cows and horses on the farm. 



" The value of cow's urine, with other animal substances dissolved in it, is 

 universally admitted by all the farmers of sandy soils in the Netherlands : the 

 theory of its preparation and application to the soil remains, however, yet 

 involved in some degree of obscurity; and some eminent chemists have 

 doubted whether the collection of it in a tank is the most economical mode 

 of preparing it for the soil. 



" In the very valuable Treatise on Animal Manures, by [Sprengel, it is 

 more than insinuated, that the advantages of the urine tank are much over- 

 rated ; and that it is better to mix the solid and liquid parts of dung to- 

 gether, and form them into composts with rich earth, as is often done in 

 England and other countries, than to preserve the fluid portion by itself in a 

 tank, to be used separately on the land, after it has gone through a certain 

 stage of decomposition. Without disputing the correctness of the chemical prin- 

 ciples on which this opinion is founded, we may hesitate before we conJemn 

 or undervalue a practice which has produced such wonderful effects in the 

 improvement of the poor sands in the Netherlands. 



" Liquid manure may be applied to plants in every stage of their growth, 

 if it be judiciously diluted, so as not to injure the young and delicate roots by 

 its caustic nature. It invigorates their growth more than we could anticipate 

 from a knowledge of its solid component parts. It is no doubt sooner ex- 

 hausted, because it is rapidly absorbed by the roots, and its elements enter 

 into new combinations. If some of the more volatile parts, as ammonia, fly 

 off" in the process of decomposition which goes on in the tank, it is probable 

 that a much greater portion of these elements flies off" from the solid dung 

 while it remains in the ground, and before it is in a fit state to be taken up 

 by the roots, which can only happen when rain renders it liquid. All those 

 who have had long experience of the good effects of liquid manure on light 

 soils, persevere in its use, whatever objections may be urged theoretically to 

 its being preserved separately. 



■ " On stiflp impervious soils, the use of liquid manure may not be so advan- 

 tageous, and the reasonings of chemists may be correct. On these soils it is 

 seldom used, except when they are in grass, or when cabbages are planted ; 

 and composts prepared with straw, earth, and dung, with the liquid portions 

 occasionally poured over them, are found to be a more effectual and lasting 

 manure. The Swiss, whose principal object is to have a supply of food for 

 their cattle in winter, when the mountain pastures are covered with snow, and 

 who devote much of their attention to the cultivation of roots and artificial 

 grasses, use the liquid manure in a very condensed state, collecting the water 

 which has been poured over their heaps of dung, after it has filtered through 

 them, and been saturated with all the soluble portions of the dung. This, 

 which they call lizier in French, and mist-wasser or guile in German, is car- 

 ried on the land immediately after the grass, saintfoin, or lucern has been mown, 

 and produces a second and third crop in a very short time. Cabbages, potatoes, 

 and the varieties of the beet are invigorated in the same manner ; and thus, in 

 the short summers of the high mountain valleys, crops are brought to maturity, 

 which, without the use of liquid manm-e, would never have had time to ripen. 

 But let it not be imagined that either the Flemings or the Swiss undervalue 

 the solid manure which is produced by the mixture of litter with the dung of 

 animals, collected in heaps, where it heats and decomposes. They are as 

 careful of this, and as anxious to increase it by every means in their power, 

 as the best English farmer can be. 



" * In order to increase as much as possible the quantity of solid manure, 

 there is in most farms a place for the general reception of every kind of vege- 

 table matter which can be collected ; this is a shallow excavation, of a square 

 or oblong form, of which the bottom has a gentle slope towards the end. It 

 is generally lined on three sides with a wall of brick to keep the earth from 

 falling in ; and this wall sometimes rises a foot or more above the level of the 



1841. — II. 3d Ser. g 



