ON MANURES. U 



a celebrated foreign chemist — M. Vauquelin — has not only 

 lately discovered a very remarkable difference between the 

 dung- of cocks and hens, but that there also exists a sensible 

 distinction between that of hens which lay, and of those which 

 do not produce eggs ! However deserving- those researches 

 may be of inquiry, and however important they may hereafter 

 prove, if followed up with regard to the larger animals, it 

 would yet be difficult, and periiaps, under all circumstances, 

 unnecessary, to state the differences of the comparative cha- 

 racter and value of these and various other putrescible bodies — 

 such as fish, spoiled flesh, and many other substances, which, 

 though all, no doubt, useful to vegetation, when they can be 

 procured on such terms as that the farmer finds they can be 

 profitably applied to his purpose, are yet seldom found in such 

 abundance as to require a separate account of the properties 

 of each. We therefore do not deem it necessary to pursue 

 that portion of the subject farther, and shall accordingly pro- 

 ceed to the consideration of that compound of Vegetable and 

 animal substance so well known under the title of 



Farm-yard Manure. — This must ever be ranked in the first 

 class ; and when improved yards have been constructed for the 

 soiling of cattle, and attention has been paid to the quality as 

 well as the increase of their dung, the manure thus produced 

 becomes of inestimable value. No husbandman can carry on 

 his busmess without it, and every one who attends for a 

 moment to the difficulty of procuring a sufficient quantity of 

 dung, as well as of preparing what is got, will acknowledge, 

 that however imperfectly the subject be understood, none is 

 more deserving of serious investigation; yet even the most 

 superficial observer on the common state of culture can hardly 

 fail to remark, that the evident inattention to its management 

 is such as would almost lead to the supposition that it is not 

 worth the pains of the farmer's care. Nothing is more com- 

 mon than to see large heaps of manure' thrown out from the 

 stables and feeding-sheds, and exposed in that state to the 

 weather, without any regard to its being laid up in a regular 

 and careful manner, secured from evaporation, or carefiilly 

 mixed in different proportions according to its various quali- 

 ties; yet these proportions are severally of a very distinct and 

 important nature. 



When horse-dung- is sufficiently moist, and is exposed to 

 the action of the air, it speedily enters into a: state of fer- 

 mentation, which is necessary to mix and assimilate its watery, 



