300 General Notices. 



JaufFret is calculated, I think, to be of very great service. The characteristic 

 feature and principal merit of this invention is, to convert in a few weeks, by 

 means of a fermenting liquid, masses of these vegetable substances into real 

 manure, or, more properly speaking, into perfect vegetable mould, which may 

 be used immediately. It will come dear, I think, dearer than animal manure, 

 near large cities ; but probably less dear than the old composts, which required 

 to be turned three or four times, and to lie six months, ayear, or more ; while in 

 this case the object is effected in nineteen ortwenty days. In France, where we 

 have still almost entire provinces covered with heath and rushes, the Jauffret 

 compost must be very useful. It will be useful also, I think, in the cantons, 

 where the vine is cultivated. In England, where agriculture is much more 

 advanced than in France, and the production of manure incomparably greater, 

 it would certainly be of much less importance, except, perhaps, for some par- 

 ticular localities. Being a subscriber, I have the pamphlet which describes the 

 composition of the compost. The receipt is so complicated as to be almost 

 ridiculous, although it has been much simplified in a second edition, and it will, 

 no doubt, be much more so in time. — V, Paris, April 6. 1838. 



Jmiffrei's Manure in England. — A gentleman of property, and a great me- 

 chanical inventor and promoter of agricultural improvement, has been at the 

 expense of taking out a patent for Jauffret's manure in England. The spe- 

 cification is in the Repertory of Arts, No. 51., for March, 1838 ; and it is taken 

 out in the name of A. B. F. Rosser, of New Boswell Court, London. M. 

 Lozivy informs us that the specification is a correct translation of that of the 

 French patent, of which we have no doubt, having compared it with the pam- 

 phlet alluded to by our correspondent. 



The object of the inventor is stated to be, to reduce, not only " broom, heather, 

 furze, rushes, and other vegetables, not hitherto used for making manure, as being 

 deemed too difficult of decomposition, but also vegetables and weeds, such , for 

 instance, as couch grass, which it has hitherto been considered dangerous to 

 introduce into manure, and the vegetating powers of which are by the invention 

 totally destroyed. The principal object effected by the invention is the pro- 

 duction of a rapid fermentation, the degree of which may be regulated nearly 

 at pleasure ; whereby the substances to be converted into manure are speedily 

 and uniformly decomposed." The inventor next describes a liquid, which is 

 to be prepared beforehand, of water, unslacked lime, a little sal ammoniac, and 

 kitchen-water, or any sweepings, dead animals, spoiled provisions, and filth 

 from the dwelling-house. This water is to be allowed to ferment in a tank or 

 pit. This is the first process. The next is to procure faecal substances and 

 urine, particularly human ordure, chimney soot, powdered gypsum, unslacked 

 lime, wood-ashes, sea salt, and what the inventor calls kaven of manure, being 

 the kst drainings from a dunghill already formed by the inventor's method. 

 These articles being procured, and mixed together in certain proportions 

 (which we do not give, because we do not suppose there is one of our readers 

 who would adopt them), a quantity of the prepared liquid is to be poured over 

 them, and the whole allowed to ferment for some weeks in a pit or cask. A 

 piece of ground is now to be prepared by levelling and beating,so as to render 

 it impervious to water; and on this raised floor the heap of straw, heath, or 

 other rubbish which is to undergo fermentation, is to be placed. The materials 

 may be placed in layers, and thoroughly moistened and slimed with the liquid 

 and its sediment. The heap may be raised to the height of 7 ft., and then 

 thoroughly moistened and covered over with the muddy sediment of the liquid. 

 While the heap is making, it should be beaten or trodden down, so as to make 

 the substances of which it is composed lie close and compact; and, when it is 

 finished, it should be beaten all round with the same view. The heap is now 

 to be covered all over with straw, branches, or herbage, so as to retain the heat 

 and exclude the rain, or the drought. At the end of forty-eight hours from 

 the completion of the heap, a fermentation of from 15° to 20° of heat by Reau- 

 mur's scale (66° to 77° Fahr.) has been found to have taken place; and on the 

 following day it has generally attained from 30° to 40° of Reaumur (99° to 



