ON MANURES. ^ 75 



superior quality to the latter; and the same effect was visible 

 in the following- year,* There needs, indeed, no argument 

 to prove that it must possess some fertilizing properties, but, 

 except it be rich in quality, as well as abundant in quantity, 

 it may be doubtful whether it be a profitable object of team 

 labour. 



Some extensive experiments upon the application of liquid 

 manure — when confined tco urine — have also been recently 

 made in Scotland upon various crops, of which the following 

 is a summary. 



A cistern was constructed in the dung-court sufficiently 

 large to contain the urine of from thirty-five to forty, and 

 sometimes of seventy cows. The supply generally amounted 

 to 360 gallons a week. When intended for use, it was mixed 

 with three or four times the same quantity of pond-wator, and 

 was taken out to the fields in a large butt containing 120 

 gallons, placed on wheels like a cart, to the hinder part of 

 which there was attached a wooden box perforated with holes, 

 through which the liquid ran out upon the ground in tb.e man- 

 ner of a common watermg-cart. 



No. 1. — When applied, in October, to grass which had 

 been closely cropped by sheep,| the aftergrowth was not much 

 increased, but the sward maintained a fresh green appearance 

 during the winter, and it could be cut a month earlier than 



* In pursuance of this experiment, the pond was drained and lined with 

 clay, to prevent the water from oozing through it; drains were then laid 

 into it from the stables, and into it were also emptied the contents of 

 the privy and the offal from the kitchen, by which means the water 

 became very putrid. A water cart was then made, with a trough behind 

 full of holes, and the meadow-land was watered with twenty carts-full, 

 laid on either in the beginning of May, or after the cutting of the crop 

 in July ; the effect of which was superior, on both crop and rowen, to any 

 other kind of manure. 



Although the lining of the pond with clay was a good precaution, it might, 

 however, be dispensed with; for, on draining the pond, the earth at the 

 bottom would be found saturated with the drainage, and being scraped up, 

 would make excellent manure. 



tThe account from which this was extracted says 'that the quantity 

 allowed was 20,000 gallons per imperial acre : but on calcuiatin",' the urine at 

 360 gallons per week, and presuming it to have been mixed with four times 

 the same quantity of water, — as there stated,— the whole amount furnished 

 during the year would only be 93,600 gallons ; yet the extent of ground thus 

 manured ainounted, — in the year 1828. to 40 imperial acres; in 1S30, to 46 

 imperial acres; in 1S31, to 50 imperial acres; and in 1»32, to 80 imperial 

 acres— of which the one half was watered again alter the first crop of clover 

 was cut in 1631 and 1832: there must therefore be an error in the quantity 

 of urine. See the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. xii. p. 9a — 97. 



