HQC KINGS' GARDEN MANUAL. 



IRRIGATION OF GRASS LANDS 

 WITH LIQUID MANURE. 



Occupiers of land on the Continent have been for 

 many years aware of the eminent advantages of liquid 

 manure. " So long ago as 1829, in a published 

 account of the various methods of dairy husbandry, 

 pursued by the Dutch, the practical application and 

 advantages of liquid manure was well understood by 

 that industrious and intelligent people," The method 

 was as follows : — " Early in the season part of the 

 proprietor's farm and some small fields near the cow- 

 house were sown with barley and grass seeds, and 

 watered with diluted cow urine by means of a fire 

 engine. Barrels full of urine were also conveyed to 

 the land on hand barrows with broad wheels, which 

 were easily wheeled along the rich soft ground, which 

 would have been destroyed by horses and carts. The 

 contents of the barrels were discharged by means of 

 pipes eight feet long, perforated with holes. The 

 grass of the field thus irrigated was cut five or six 

 times a year, and, though not very long in the blade, 

 there was always great weight of produce. Indeed, it 

 was so thick and rich, that it would have rotted unless 

 cut often. The grass was cut during the day when the 

 weather was wet or moist, but when it was dry it was 

 cut late at night or early in the morning, and the field 

 irrigated immediately after being cut." 



In an experiment made by Dr. Guy, in which the 

 grass of a park had been partly irrigated with sewage, 

 the animals found the irrigated grass so grateful to 

 them, that " while in other parts of the park they have 

 suffered the grass to grow without let or hindrance, 

 they have kept it close nibbled, and wili not give it an 

 opportunity of growing." 



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