well littered with straw : in six weeks they required nearly 

 six tons of straw [to give them clean and comfortable beo's :] 

 and in that time made 40 tons of dung-, equal to that broui^ht 

 from London [stable dung it is to be presumed.] So every ton 

 of litter produced near seven tons of dung. — But this weight 

 must have been obtained chiefly by the earth of the headland 

 absorbing the urine, of which, when fed on turnips, sheep make 

 great quantities, and being finally mixed with their dung and 

 litter. This recital reminds me of the recommendation, in my 

 address to this Society in May, 1818, to carry earth into the 

 barn yard, once in every two weeks, from Spring to Autumn ; 

 adding to every layer of earth a coat of litter. I should then 

 have advised a plentiful spreading of litter, had I not known 

 that our courses of husbandry in Essex yielded very little 

 straw. 



In the same communication to the Society, I presented my 

 ideas on the proper application of manure ; to wit, al'dcays to bury 

 it up quickly^ when carried to the field^ to prevent great loss by 

 its exposure to the sun and air ; remarking, that the essence of 

 manure was lost, not by sinking into the earth below the roots 

 of cultivated plants, but by rising into the atmosphere, and so 

 fleeing away. Here, also, I have the satisfaction of seeing the 

 theory I had formed nineteen years ago (in the manner suggest- 

 ed in that communication) supported by the opinions and practi- 

 ces of such eminent Agriculturists as Messrs. Arbuthnot and 

 Ducket. After noticing Arbuthnot's cultivation of madder, aa 

 article requiring a rich soil and extremely deep tillage, Mr. 

 Young says — " there was one circumstance in his management, 

 which, being applicable to more important articles, merits a more 

 durable attention ; this is, the depth to which he ploughed in 

 the dung: his tillage went to that of eighteen inches; and he 

 conceived there was no danger of losing, by this circumstance, 

 either vegttable or animal manures, as their tendency, contrary 

 to all/om/ones, was not to sin/r, but to rise in the atmosphere/* 

 Fossil manures are lime, marl, plaister of Paris, and other sub- 

 stances dug out of the earth, which increase the productivf^ 

 powers of soils. 



Mr. Ducket's manner of applying dung, although his was a 

 sand farm, was similar to Mr. Arbuthnot's. '■ Immediately con- 



