ON MANURES. igj 



which it must be again turned, at least twice, at different 

 periods. 



If quicklime be used, and there remains any moisture in 

 the pond scourings, it will be sufficiently fallen for turning- in 

 a few days, — but if the compost be made with farm-yard dung, 

 it may require to remain for six or eight weeks to ferment 

 and decompose before it is in a proper state for turning. To 

 derive the greatest advantage from composts, it is necessary to 

 mix them thoroughly, which can only be effected by repeated 

 and careful turnings. To form them, in the first instance, 

 with both quicklime and manure is injudicious: the former 

 ought never to be brought into contact with the latter — 

 though manures may be advantageously incorporated witban 

 old compost, in which a little lime has been used. 



These composts may be applied at the rate of 16 to 20 cubical 

 yards for strong loams, and upon light loams in a rather smaller 

 proportion. Pond mud is however not unfrequently used, in an 

 unprepared state, upon grass-lands; but the accounts given of 

 its effects are so different, and the experiments are so inaccu- 

 rately stated, that we might mislead our readers were we to 

 detail them. Were attention paid to the properties of the 

 mud, and to the quality of the soil on which it is to be laid — in 

 the manner already alluded to — there can, however, be little 

 doubt that errors in its application might be avoided. It 

 appears the better mode to apply it in the latter end of 

 autumn, or the early part of winter, and to bush-harrow it 

 well after it has been hardened by the frost. 



River 7nud in creeks, or banks, from which it can be col- 

 lected, answers the same description, and is also extensively 

 employed in some districts in the operation of warping. 



kea mud or sleech, has also been used in some places in 

 very large quantities, and has been found of so very enriching 

 a nature, that it was thought worth while to carry it in barges 

 up the river Mersey, to the estates of the late Duke of Bridge- 

 water, at Worsley, in Lancashire. It abounds at the mouths of 

 many of the friths and rivers which run into the sea; and one 

 gentleman, who has used it for upwards of half a century in 

 Cheshire, asserts that no other manure is equal to it either for 

 corn or grass. It is there, however, always laid upon grass, 

 and ploughed in without any addition in the following spring. 

 If the ensuing March be dry, and there has been much fro*t 

 in the winter, a heavy pair of harrows will prepare it for the 

 plough; otherwise, it must be chopped with spades. The 

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