APPENDIX. 173 



This species of manure is relied on beyond any other, upon all the 

 light soils throughout Flanders ; and oven upon the strong lands, orig- 

 inally so rich as to preclude the necessity of manure, is now coming 

 into great esteem, being considered applicable to most crops, and to 

 all the varieties of soil. 



III. — Harley's Experience. 



Harley who kept a dairy of a hundred cows, near Glasgow, says 

 " that the advantage of irrigating grass-lands with cows' urine, almost 

 exceeds belief. Last season, some small fields were cut six times, av- 

 eraging fifteen inches in length at each cutting ; and the swarth very 

 thick." 



IV. — Experiments of C. Alexander. 



The following extract transferred from the Farmer's Magazine 

 to that spirited and valuable agricultural work, Young's Letters of Ag- 

 ricola, is so important and instructive that I subjoin it : 



" This intelligent farmer, Charles Alexander, near Peebles, Scot- 

 land, had long been impressed with the great importance of the urine 

 of cattle as a manure ; and he set about to discover, by a long and 

 well conducted series of experiments, the best method of collecting and 

 applying it. He began by digging a pit contiguous to the feeding- 

 stall, but distinct altogether from that which was appropriated for the 

 reception of the dung. The dimensions of this pit, according to his 

 own account, were 36 feet square, and 4 feet deep, surrounded on all 

 sides by a wall ; and the solid contents were 192 yards. Having se- 

 lected the nearest spot where he could find loamy earth, and this he 

 always took from the surface of some field under cultivation, he pro- 

 ceeded to fill it ; and found that, with three men and two horses, he 

 could easily accomplish 28 cubic yards per day : and the whole ex- 

 pense of transporting the earth did not exceed £41. 16s. When the 

 work was complete, he levelled the surface of the heap, in a line with 

 the mouth of the sewer, which conducted the urine from the interior 

 of the building, on purpose that it might be distributed with regularity, 

 and might saturate the whole from top to bottom. The quantity con- 

 veyed to it, he estimates at about 800 gallons; but as this calculation 

 was founded partly on conjecture, for he measured not the liquor, it 

 will be better and more instructive to furnish and proceed on data, 

 that are certain and incontrovertible. The urine was supplied by 14 

 cattle, weighing about 34 stone each, and kept there for five months 



