PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 139 



dust screened from malt, crushed seed left after pressure in oil mills, the 

 refuse from cider mills, soot, ashes and stable dung, with a small portion 

 of lime, salt, and half a ton of refuse oil cake ; when these matters are 

 sufficiently decomposed to cause a pungent ammoniacal perfume to arise 

 from the heap, cover it with charcoal dust, or muck, which will retain tho 

 gases ; when applied, dig a space four feet in diameter around the tree, 

 place in about two bushels of compost and cover it. 



ANIMAL MANURES. 



f" Substances of the animal kind, when reduced by the process of putre- 

 faction, or other means, into a soft, pulpy or mucilaginous state, are found 

 by experience to afford those matters which are suited to the nutrition of 

 plants with greater readiness, and in more abundance than most other 

 bodies that can be employed. By chemical analysis it has been shown 

 that the component materials of these substances, so far as agriculture is 

 concerned; are chiefly water, jelly or mucilage, and oleaginous matters, 

 with small portions of saline and calcareous earthy substances. 



Hence animal substances, though they agree in some circumstances 

 with vegetable productions, each having, in common, water, saccharine 

 and calcareous matters, are far more compounded ; and in animal sub- 

 stances some of these materials are in large proportion, while in vegeta- 

 bles they only exist in a very small degree ; and the jelly which, in some 

 measure, resembles tlie gum and mucilage of plants, dilBfers likewise 

 from them in its having much less tendency to become dry, as well as in 

 its property of attracting humidity from the atmosphere, and of running 

 with great .rapidity into the state of putrefaction and decay. All these 

 principles oT animal excrement are resolved by their ultimate decomposi- 

 tion into other matters, such as the different gaseous fluids, &c. It would 

 appear probable, too, that in animal substances of different sorts there may 

 be differences in regard to the proportions of these several ingredients. 

 Some kinds affording one or more of them in greater abundance than 

 others, while others again are deficient in these, but abound in some of the 

 others. On this supposition tlie different effects of substances of the same 

 class, when applied to soils of the same kind, may be easily accounted for, 



HARD ANIMAL SUBSTANCES. 



In the matters of this sort that are employed as manures, there are dif- 

 ferences in respect to their texture and firmness, some being quite solid 

 and firm, such as bones, hgrns, hoofs and other similar substances, while 

 many are more soft and pliable. The bones of all animals are capable of 

 affording much nutritious matter to plants, but those which are procured 

 from cattle that have been killed when fat, are the best for the purposes of 

 manure. Those which have been boiled are far inferior, in this view, to 

 those which have not undergone that process, as by such means they are 

 principally robbed of their oily and mucilaginous properties, and conse- 

 quently must yield much less nourishment to the immediate crop, whether 

 it be grass or grain. All these substances require to be ground down, or 

 dissolved with sulphuric acid before they are placed in the compost heap, 

 otherwise they will decompose so gradually as not to yield a full supply of 

 nourishment for supporting the crops. Bones are constituted of a largo 



