[.. XXIt. NO. 33. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



17.t 



VALUIO OP URINE AS A MANURE. 

 Ve extract the following from a speech made by 

 Johnson, of Rccleston, iit the anniKil meeting 

 he Chester (Eng.) .Agricultural Society: 

 With respect to nmnure.<?, he would remind 

 ni that at the last meeting, Mr Crakanthorp had 

 ited to them the anecdote about a ujaii who 

 sted that hs could, through the improvements of 

 ;nco, carry the manure for a lield in his breech- 

 pocket ; and who was retorted upon, tliat he 

 ;ht also carry the crop in his wai.-stcoat pocket. 

 : it was a fact now, that with respect to guano, 

 required manure for a wagon-load of crop might 

 conveyed to the field in a wheel-barrow. He 

 n made some judicious observations on the man- 

 ment of manures, particularly in respect to 

 se liquid manures which now upon very many 

 ms run waste. He had made some inquiries of 

 entleman of eminence in agricultural science ; 

 he had le.irned from him that the liquid from 

 cow would, if distilled, produce a manure a$ 

 uable as gunno, and worth 4/. annually. It was 

 culated that there were eight million cows in 

 J kingdom, so that the liquid manure from them 

 iild be worth about 33,000,000^. Now, if one- 

 th of this could be saved, it would pay the 

 ■perty tax ! 



It has been ascertained by experiments that a 

 I.V voids in a year 13,000 lbs. weight of urine ; 

 Is contains 'MO lbs. of solid matter, finely dissolv- 

 (including 230 lbs. of ammonia,) which solid 

 Iter would be more fertilizing than guano. 

 In Flanders, where manuring has been long 

 ictically studied, and where liquid manures are 

 ;hiy esteemed, the urine of one cow kept up all 

 ! year round, is valued at 40s. 

 In a course of experiments made with the solid 

 .tter extracted from urine, applied at the rate of 

 nundred weight and a half to the acre, the fol- 

 wing results were obtained: 

 An acre undressed produced 



Wheat, 44 bushels. 



Oats, 49 do. 



Turnips, 13 1-4 tons. 



Polatot^s, 12 3-4 do. 



An acre dressed produced 



Wheat, 54 1-2 bush. 



Oats, 50 do. 



Turnips, 24 1-2 tons. 



Potatoes, 14 1-2 do. 



Let any dairy farmer, with these facts before 

 m, make a fair calculation of what is lost to him- 

 !lfand the country by the hitherto unheeded 

 aste of the urine of his cattle, and he will see the 

 aportance of taking some steps for preserving it 

 1 future." 



SULPHATE OF AMMONIA. 



We copy the following from the Mark Lane 

 (London) Express. The letter is addressed to 

 Messrs. Lea, Perrins & Smith, chemists : 



Dear Sirs — I am sure you will bo much pleased 

 to hear of the success that has attended the appli- 

 cation of the 112 lbs. of sulphate of ammonia I had 

 from your house. 



1 applied it by hand and without any admixture 

 upon scmie grass lawns and banks surrounding my 

 house — in all about an acre — previously very 

 brown and mossy, though I had occasionally ap- 

 plied hard soil, salt, liquid manure, &c. For the 

 first day or so after the application of the sulphate, 

 I observed that much of the grass had the appear- 

 ance of being slightly singed ; but in a few days 

 it bejan to assume a very healthy color, which 

 was rapidly succeeded by a most luxuriant growth, 

 and the appearance of a good dn;>l of herbage re- 

 sembling small-leafed clover, benring a yellow 

 blossom, which I do not remember previously to 

 have seen on any part. The lawns have continued 

 to improve so rapidly, not only in color but pro- 

 duct, as to excite the surprise of all my friends 

 who had seen them before ; and I assure you that 

 my gardener complains of being obliged to mow 

 three or four times now where he had previously 

 to do so once only. The effect at present, (with 

 every appearance of its continuance,) has been 

 such as very greatly to exceed any other manure I 

 have ever tried. 



I am yours, truly, 



Thomas Fra.nck. 



Preservation of Jlpples. — In the London Garden- 

 er's Chronicle, we find the following account of the 

 mode of preserving apples, adopted by a gentleman 

 in Herefordshire. We are of the opinion it would 

 succeed any where. — Alb. Cult. 



" He covers the floor of his cellar with hurdles 

 two in thickness, and on these he puts a little 

 straw, upon which the apples are placed without 

 further care. He has at present 110 bushels of 

 apples thus stored in his small cellar: two or three 

 times a week, he gives a good wetting with fresh 

 water, as much as he thinks will thoroughly xvel 

 the tchole of them. This water drains off through 

 the straw and hurdles into a well. In this way, 

 his apples keep well until the time he usually dis- 

 poses of them." 



Minute Mechanism. — By a measurement lately 

 lade by one skilled in curiosities, it is found that 

 le silk worm's thread is so fine that one drachm of 

 , will extend a distance of one hundred andeighty- 

 ve miles and ninety-two feet ; while the same 

 'eight of a common grass-spider's thread will reach 

 wo hundred and twelve miles and seventy-four feet. 



There is in every mind a court, before which all 

 he thoUL'lils, designs and actions, are arraigned and 

 ried. There is no appeal from the decisions of 

 his court, for truth sits as judge — and when it pro- 

 lounces sentence, every criminal is his own execu- 

 ioner. 



Laborers. — " The laboring men of this country 

 are vast in number and respectable in character. 

 We owe to them, under Providence, the most glad- 

 some spectacle the sun beholds in its course — a 

 land of cultivated and fertile fields, an ocean white 

 with canvass. They are the blood and sinews of 

 the nation — its main support in peace, and its de- 

 fence in war." 



Poverty is often a torch-light which kindles up an 

 intellectual flame to brighten and beautify the whole 

 moral world ; while the glitter of gold blinds the 

 vision of millions to their best inerests, and finally 

 leaves them in hopeless ignorance and disgrace. 



Rifrht. The Courts of Georgia have decided that 



the refusal to take a newspaper from the Post Of- 

 fice and leaving it uncalled for, when all the arrear- 

 ages are not paid, are "prima facie" evidence of in- 

 tentional fraud. 



CHINF.SC AGRICULTURE. 



The greatest annual festival upon which the 

 sovereign appearsiii his saccnlotiil character is ihnt 

 of the celebration of the season of the spring, wliicli 

 takes place about the middle of Fubruaiy, ami is one 

 of those anciont observances that helji to preserve 

 the primitive character of this nation. It is then 

 that the Emperor performs the part of the husbanil- 

 man, by ploughing ami sowing seed in an enclosure 

 set apart (or that purpose near the [lalace. The 

 cliiy for the royul ploughing is fixed by the Bo.ird 

 of Rites, and this ceremony was accoinjianied by 

 many solemnitcs on the part of the Emperor, and 

 those who were to assist at the sacrifices — such a« 

 fasting three days until the evening of each, nnd 

 abstaining from all kinds of amusement during that 

 period. Early on the morning of the festival, the 

 Kni|)eror attended by the great officers of State, re- 

 ()airs to the temple of the Earth, where he makes 

 sacrifices and implores a blessing on tho labors of 

 the spring, that they may produce a plentiful har- 

 vest ; and when the.*e rites are ended he de-cends 

 from the temjile into the field ^where all the requisite 

 preparations have been made by forty or fifty hus- 

 bandmen who are in attendance. The Emperor 

 ploughs a few furrows with his own hands, and 

 sowsfive sortsof grain ; after which twelve gran- 

 dees of the first class, plough nnd sow in turn, nnd 

 then the work is completed by the professional 

 husbandmen, each of whom receives a present of a 

 piece of Nankin cloth. The produce of this field 

 is held sacred, and carefully preserved in a granary 

 by itself, to be used for most solemn sacrifices. The 

 ploughing by the Imperial husbandman takes place 

 only ill the capitol ; but in every largo city a cere- 

 mony is performed, called " meeting the spring," 

 when the Governor assumes the character of high 

 priest, and goes out in state, carried in a finely or- 

 namented sedan-chair, preceded by banners, light- 

 ed torches, and music. He is followed by several 

 mandarins in their sedans, and by a number of lit- 

 ters, in which are placeil chililren who are fanci- 

 fully dressed and crowned with (lowers, represent- 

 ing various ileities connected with the labors of the 

 field. But the most prominent figure among the 

 dramatis personm is a huge earthen buffalo, the 

 representative of spring, which is borne in proces- 

 sion to meet the high priest, who de,livers a lecture 

 on the benefits of husbandry, which is one of six- 

 teen discourses read annually to the people. At 

 the conclusion of the lecture, he strikes the bufTalo 

 three times with a staflf, when it is immediately 

 broken in pieces by the populace, and a number of 

 little porcelain cows with which it was filled, fur- 

 nish materials for a scramble. The rest of the day 

 is devoted to amusements. 



It is thus that the rulers of China, both by pre- 

 cept and example, stimulate their subjects to the 

 pursuit of agriculture, so essential to the support 

 of the empire. And, as the Emperor in person 

 plows the land and sows tho seed, so the Empress 

 also performs her part to encourage another most 

 important branch of industry, by going through, in 

 appearance, at least, all the labors connected with 

 the culture of silk. — Miss Corner's History of Chi- 

 na. 



