184 A PKACTICAL TREATISE 



Eequently not at the disposition of all husbandmen, we shall 

 only touch upon them slightly. 



Fellmongers' poake, which is the waste arising- from the 

 preparation of skins, is compounded in various proportions of 

 lime, oil, and hair, and is of such a caustic and lieating nature, 

 that it is rarely used in any other state than that of a compost 

 with earthy substances, and sometimes, when it is thought 

 expedient to increase the powers of farm manure, also with 

 stable-dung. To form this, whatever materials are intended 

 for the compost should be mixed together in a heap, sur- 

 rounded with maiden earth, and covered, when it begins to 

 ferment, with soil made fine and sloped so as to throw off the 

 rain. When the fermentation has nearly subsided, it should 

 then be turned over, and if some fresh litter be mixed with it, 

 the midden will again immediately heat; after which, it may 

 be again turned in three weeks or a month, and in about six 

 weeks more, it will be fit for use. 



In this state, it is well calculated for cold and tenacious 

 soils, as well as for loams of every description, and when laid 

 on at the rate of 12 to 16 tons per acre, according to the 

 strength of the land, it has been known to produce heavy 

 crops for four or five years successively. It has also been 

 applied, in its unprepared state, as a top-dressing to sour 

 coarse meadow, with very good effect; and after having lain 

 three or four months on the field, and having been frequently 

 moved about with the brush harrow, it has then been raked 

 up, and laid upon the dungheap. There can, however, be 

 little doubt that much of its valuable properties must have 

 been thus exhausted by the atmosphere; which, if it had been 

 made up in the first instance into a compost, would have been 

 preserved. 



The clippings, are the parings and scrapings of the skins, 

 which, although generally used in the manufacture of glue, 

 have been in many instances used as manure. When ploughed 

 in upon a summer fallow for wheat, these clippings have been 

 found highly serviceable to deep loamy land, and t» strong 

 soils which are not too wet, for they not only produce a full 

 clean grain, with a bright strong straw, but the bulk of tlie 

 crop is also greatly increased. Care should however be taken 

 to cover them well with the soil ; for, if left near the surflice, 

 the putrid effluvia, which they soon emit, attract the crows in 

 Bwarms, ^nd great quantities are thus scratched out of the 



