Gi 



A DISCOURSE 



Meats' dung, tempered with urine, and made up in cakes as big as house- 

 hold loaves ; and after all is well dried in the shade, crumble the mass to 

 dust, to be sifted or sprinkled on the ground, for a very considerable im- 

 provement ; we say sprinkled, because it should never be sown too 

 thick, especially for corn, which it either cloys or over-heats, according 

 as it is qualified Thus, pigeons' dung burns seeds on hot ground, but 

 is excellent for barley, &c. sown on the colder mould. 



" the action of boiling water, for which reason they must be much inferior to such as retain 

 " their oily parts ; and this is another of the many proofs given in these essays, that oil is the 

 " food of plants. The farmers in this neighbourhood are become so fond of this kind of 

 " manure, that the price is now advanced to one shilling and fourpence per bushel, and even 

 " at that price they send sixteen miles for it. 



" I have found it a judicious practice to mix ashes with the bones ; and this winter I have 

 " six acres of meadow land dressed with that compost. A cart load of ashes may be put to 

 "thirty or forty bushels of bones, and when they have heated for twenty-four hours, (which 

 " may be known by the smoking of the heap,) let the whole be turned. After laying 

 " ten days longer, this most excellent dressing will be fit for use." Georgical Essays, 

 page 461. 



My very excellent friend, Edward M. Mundy, Esq. of Shipley, in the county of Derby, this 

 moment informs me, that a gentleman in the neighbourhood of Matlock has lately erected a 

 mill for grinding bones, which he profitably applies both to pasture and arable lands. 



>" These observations of Sir Hugh Piatt, relative to the nutritive powers of all kinds of seeds, 

 are fully confirmed by the present practice of using the powder of rape-cakes upon corn 

 lands. This species of manure is much used upon the thin limestone lands in Yorkshire. 

 They generally use three quarters per acre for wheat, and four quarters for barley. It is 

 sown by hand, and harrowed in with the grain ; and costs about nineteen shillings per 

 quarter. If rain fall within a week or ten days after sowing, the barley crop is generdlv 

 good, but if no rain fall till long after, the benefit of this expensive dressing is in a great 

 measure lost ; neither does the succeeding crop receive much advantage from it. For 

 wheat, rape-dust is considered as a certain dressing, rain generally falling within a 

 short time afier sowing that grain : the strong mechanical powers employed in drav/ing 

 the oil from the rape-seed, must, as I conceive, diminish the goodness of the dust used by 

 the farmer. However, some experienced farmers contend that it is full as good as when 

 it contained more oil. This deserves to be carefnlly investigated, and should be the object 

 of correct experiment. On this subject 1 have fully enlarged in the note upon the twenty- 

 eighth pao-e of the first volume of tlie Silva, and I think I have there proved, that oil, or 

 mucilage, is the food of plants ; if so, the violence used in extracting the oil from the seed, 

 must render the rape-cake of less value. 



In all light soils, whether deep or shallow, what is called top-dressing,, constitutes a system 

 of farming, that is highly judicious ; for which reason I do recommend the farmer to emplov 

 his ingenuity and attention in forming a body of manure that may be put on by hand, either 



the time of sowing the grain, or after it has come up. The use of pigeons' dung and 



