HORTICULTURAL REPOSITORY, 



13 



" The only substance now employed for the produc- 

 tion of gluten, is the urine of live stock ; the alvine ex- 

 crementitious matter having been proved to contain 

 little or no nitrogen ; this urine is applied either by 

 folding, or mixed with farm-yard manure ; in both of 

 which situations, it is constantly forming ammonia, 

 which is dissipated ; so that a very inconsiderable part 

 of the whole is retained to answer the purposes of ve- 

 getation. The practice adopted in Flanders of saving 

 it, has been already alluded to. 



" When the utmost attention is paid to prevent the 

 loss of any of the animal substances, accidentally pre- 

 sent in farm-yard manure, it still remains a question, 

 whether there be a sufficiency for the purposes to which 

 it is to be applied. That there is not always a sufRcicn- 

 cv of some kinds of manure is obvious from the im- 

 mense quantities of oil-cake which are so employed. 

 Oil-cake, although a very excellent substance for such 

 a purpose, can furnish little else than nourishment to 

 the straw, and starch of the wheat-crop. It cannot 

 contribute to the formation of gluten ; and gluten, as 

 has been observed, composes one-third part of all that 

 is valuable in the whole crop. 



" Bones, and other animal substances, have been 

 highly recommended for grass or pasture lands. To 

 discover the injudiciousness of applying such substan- 

 ces to crops indiscriminately, it will be necessary to 

 become acquainted with the fact, that there is no kind 

 of grain except wheat, raised artificially for the purpo- 

 ses of man, or cattle, that contains any notable quantity 

 of any substance analogous to thatof animals. Hence, 

 when bones, &c. are used on grass-lands, or for the 

 barley crop, &c. all the nitrogen, with so much hydro- 

 gen, and probably carbonic acid gas, as is sufficient to 

 form a sub-carbonate of ammonia, will be entirely lost. 

 If bones be the animal matter employed, every one 

 hundred pounds weight will yield about fifty pounds of 

 solid gelatine, of which twenty pounds at least will be 

 thus wasted, or two-fifths of all that is valuable in the 

 bone. If, instead of being employed for grass, &c. 

 they had been used for wheat, all this might probably 

 have been saved. This is not mere opinion ; its truth 

 is obvious to every one conversant with the chemical 

 nature of bones and grass. 



" Phosphate of lime composes a part of the grain of 

 wheat, and is supplied by animal substances. Bones 

 furnish an abundance of it. That this constituent of 

 the wheat crop, as well as several other constituents of 

 different crops, should not be disregarded altogether, 

 although they form very minute proportions of those 

 crops, must appear reasonable to every one who knows, 

 that, in their selections, there is exercised a constant 

 discrimination. That wheat always takes up phosphate 

 of lime, is a proof scarcely needing further evidence, 

 that it answers some useful, and perhaps indispensable 

 purpose in the grain. It does not exist in the straw : 



and barley, or oats, or clover, grown on the same land, 

 at the same time with the wheat, take up no portion of 

 it whatever. If there had not existed this constancy 

 in the selection of particular substances ; if phosphate 

 of lime had sometimes been taken up by barley or clo- 

 ver, and sulphate of lime had been found in wheat, then 

 we might have concluded that the whole was accident- 

 al, and being accidental, that they assisted in no way 

 whatever the formation of other parts of the grain, nor 

 contributed to promote the general economy of the 

 vegetable. They who are unwilling to admit the per- 

 formance of certain uses by these substances, must 

 depart from a mode of reasoning which philosophy has 

 long countenanced, and which we must hereafter em- 

 ploy, whenever wc are anxious to explore the causes 

 of physical effects." 



[Frcra the London Quarterly Review ] 

 AST. 10» — Agricultural Improvements. 



There are few individuals who hold a more distin- 

 guished place among agricultural improvers than the 

 Earl of Egremont : forty years ago, the Stag Park, at 

 Petworth, consisting of between 700 and 800 acres of 

 land, presented a wild forest scene, overspread with 

 furze, stunted timber, and rubbish, and would have 

 been dear, if let at five shillings per acre. Somewhere 

 about the year 1790, the noble owner of this unpro- 

 ductive tract undertook to improve it : the timber was 

 felled ; the underwood grubbed ; every part of the 

 ground has been since effectually drained : and the 

 whole enclosed and divided into proper fields by neat 

 and regular white-thorn hedges. Under a well arran- . 

 gcd system of tillage, it yields barley, tares, and tur- 

 nips — clover, rye, chicory, rape, and other artificial 

 grasses, in great profusion ; the crops are so luxuri- 

 ant, that few tracts which let even for thirty shillings 

 per acre, can be considered more productive. Ten 

 quarters [SO bushels] of oats and five quarters of wheat 

 are now raised upon an acre of land on which a sheep 

 would have starved before this improvement. 



Little more than fifty years ago, Clumber Park, 

 which belongs to his grace the Duke of Newcastle, 

 and contains no less than 4000 acres of land, was a 

 black, dreary, unproductive heath, within the limits of 

 the ancient and once extensive forest of Sherwood. 

 About 1760, the genius of agriculture lighted upon this 

 desolate waste ; a magnificent mansion was built by 

 the noble owner ; the heath disappeared ; 2000 acre* 

 were planted, which now exhibit the agreeable appear- 

 ance of thriving timber of very largo dimensions, and 

 the remaining 2000 acres, under a spirited and intelli- 

 gent system of husbandry, yield excellent crops of dif- 

 ferent grains and grasses : besides other live stock, the 

 sheep fed on a district which half a century ago was 

 perfectly barren, amount at least to 4000 annna'?/. 



