240 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF chap. XII. 



ly adviseable when manure is absolutely want- 

 ing, or when it can be had only in scanty pro- 

 portion. 



SECT. Ill MANURING. 



EVERY kind of substance, which, being mix- 

 ed with the soil, has the effect of rendering it 

 more productive, may be styled a manure. 

 These substances are various, and produce the 

 effect in different ways. 



I. Farm-yard dung is the most universal, and, 

 perhaps, the most efficacious and valuable kind 

 of manure that is used. Putrid animal and ve- 

 getable substances seem to be the proper food of 

 plants ; and, in proportion as the soil contains a 

 greater or a less quantity of these, it is, cteteris 

 paribus^ more or less fertile. Indeed it is proba- 

 ble that the chief use of artificial manures is to 

 produce and encrease the quantity of this kind. 



Wheat, barley, turnips, potatoes, and some- 

 times beans, are the crops to which the farm- 

 yard dung is usually applied. The quantity al- 

 lowed to an acre is from 20 to 40 tons, accord- 

 ing as it can be spared, or as the state of the 

 land may require. 



But though dung be the best of all kinds of 

 manure, and its necessity and utility in fertiliz- 

 ing the soil be generally understood and ac- 

 knowledged, a due attention does not seem to 

 be always paid to the increase and preservation 

 of it, and, in the application, a want of judg- 

 ment is frequently to be observed. In collect- 

 ing and preparing this article, a proper situation 



