OJN MANURES. gg 



dung" is thus washed, is applied as manure for potatoes. This 

 mode has been, indeed, extensively carried on in other parts 

 of the Continent, and its effects are considered as equally- 

 beneficial. There, by some farmers, water is regularly thrown 

 over the dung-hills, the oozings from which are allowed to 

 drain into pits constructed for the purpose, and permitted to 

 ferment before they are laid upon the land ; or, by others, th6 

 whole of the dung and stall-litter is immersed in water, which, 

 after a certain time, is pumped up from the pits, and applied 

 in a liquid form ; in which manner it is contended that this 

 manure is not only more powerful in itself, but the quantity is 

 thus doubled, for the solid contents of the dunghill remain the 

 same. Experiments on an extensive scale have incontestibly 

 proved the efficacy of liquid manures upon sandy or other light 

 soils, to which they impart consistency, and dispose them to 

 retain moisture; nor can there be mucli doubt that in many 

 cases the product of a single crop may be thus more than 

 doubled, by its immediate contact with the plants. 



On heavy land, we however coincide with the opinion of 

 that eminent agriculturist the Baron de Thaer, from whom 

 this account is taken, that it can never replace the solid con- 

 tents of the dunn'-hill; and, although not contestino;' the 

 advantages of which it may be susceptible when applied to 

 those soils and crops to whicli it is peculiarly applicable, we 

 yet doubt the extraordinary degree of power ascribed to it. 

 Before this mode of preparing manure be generally adopted, it 

 should also be well ascertained whether the pains and expense 

 attendant upon it do not overbalance those of our own common 

 management; for although it is possible that, in the former 

 way, a more complete decomposition of the materials may be 

 secured, and that thus new combinations of nutritive matter 

 may be formed, of the precise effects of which we are ignorant, 

 yet, in our usual method of preparation, wlien properly con- 

 ducted, nothing should be lost: tlie liquid drained from the 

 dung should be collected for further use: and it is only upon 

 such a calculation of the charges, as well as experience of the 

 eftects of the manure, that a fair conclusion can be drawn 

 regarding its real value. 



There is, perhaps, no part of the world in which the prepa- 

 ration and the practical application of vegetable and animal 

 manure is so well understood as in China; but owing to its 

 overflowing population, almost the whole of the labour is per- 

 formed by man, by which the number of working animals is so 



