252 



MANURES. 



Sect.X. 



12.3 



is thus rendered unpalatable to the cattle ; and the winter rains, or 

 the vernal floods, which generally occur with the return of the 

 fouth-weft winds, after the feafon of froft ceafes, muft wa(h away 

 a great part of it. 



In refpec^ to the moll economical manner of ufing manures in 

 agriculture Mr. Parkinfon afTerts, that one great advantage of the 

 drill-hufbandry confifts in putting the manure into drills, which he 

 diredts to be made at two feet diftance from each other. He fows 

 wheat, beans, peas, cabbages, on this manure, and afllirms, that four 

 loads of manure on an acre in this kind of hufbandry is equal to 

 lixteen loads in the ufual way of fpreading it over the whole of the 



^ 



field. 



Experienced Farmer, Vol. I. p. 32. 



3. A third queftion here prefects itfelf, if the recrements of ve- 

 getable and animal bodies buried a few inches beneath the foil un- 

 dergo the fame dccompofition, as when laid on heaps in farm-yards. 

 And though this is accompliflied more flowly, yet it is attended with 

 lefs lofs of carbonic acid, and of volatile alkali, and of hyroo-cn, and 

 of the fluid matter pf heat ; all which are emitted in great quantity 

 during the rapid fermentations of large heaps of manure, and are 

 wafted in the atmofphere, or on unprolific ground ; would it not 

 in general be more economical to bury fuch vegetable and animal 

 matters beneath the foil without a previous fermentation and putre- 

 faction ? 



In anfw 



this it muft be obferved, that in fome cafes the ufe 



of recent vegetables ploughed into the earth is found of ad 



fandy foils buck-wh 



tch 



o 



are fown, and the crop 



ploughed in, before it ripens its feeds. In this circumftance th 



crop 



buried in its faccharine and mucilaginous ftate, which 



muft undergo indeed a flower fermentation, with9ut beino- mixed 

 with animal fubft 

 fluid heat, is 



but no part of the organic matter, nor of the 



jat, is loft to the purpofes of new organization. 

 So in the cultivation of clayey lands, whofe tenacity 



o 



or 



