466 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



must be the waterings. If it is a compact and clayey soil less 

 watering will be required. 



6, The state of the atmosphere.- It will be readily conceived 

 that the watering must be more frequent when the temperature is 

 high, the sky clear, the air dry, and during drought. So says 

 De Candolle. 



Liquid manures used in agriculture are, first, drainings from 

 cow houses and stables; second, urine from dwelling houses j third, 

 the greasy water from sinks. 



The drainings from stables are obtained in two ways, and the 

 properties of the manures differ widely, according to the mode of 

 their extraction and fermentation. The liquids from stables should 

 immediately pass into a cistern underground, and when full be 

 permitted to undergo a mucous fermentation, during which pro- 

 cess it must not be disturbed for a week, after which time it may 

 be diluted with a large quantity of water, and is fit for use. The 

 other method is to allow it to run into pools, by which much of 

 the ammonia is lost. The urine, greasy water, and wash water, 

 from the dwelling, may run together in a proper cistern, and the 

 quantity be vastly increased by the addition of water, thus gaining 

 in quantity and other conditions. There appears to be miscon- 

 ception in relation to the power of pumping mixtures of common 

 dung through pipes on account of clogging. I have seen tolerably 

 thick sand delivered by pump through a hose one thousand feet 

 long, and distributed with ease, in a pottery. And was so struck 

 with the feasibility of moving thick substances in water, that I 

 would sooner undertake to clay a sandy field through this medium 

 than by carting, and the distribution would be far more effectual. 

 In Tuscany the Bonificamento of the Maremma, is a work that by 

 means of water power upwards of two feet in thickness of solid 

 earth has been spread over forty square miles of country, a mass 

 of earth work equal to eighty-two and a half million cubic yards, 

 regularly deposited. 



Tlie power desirable from the prompt applications of plain 

 water to arable cultivation may be said to be unknown to the 

 agriculture of the United States. Even at this late day in Paris 

 water is distributed by hand labor by the use of the scoop, at great 



