OF EARTH. 65 



Of like effect is earth blended with malt-dust, or decayed corn reduced 

 to meal ; so is the dust of old furze bushes, (in Devonshire called dress,) 

 but this last should not be taken in seed-time, lest it infect the ground 

 with a plant not easily to be extirpated. 



Lastly, the mud of ponds and stagnant waters of ditches, shovelled up 

 and well aired, is best applied to roots of trees, but especially the dust of 

 unstony highways, where the drift of cattle and much passage is \ Let 

 it be carried off from March to November ; for, it being already a kind 

 of refined soil, continually stirred and ventilated, there is no compost pre- 

 ferable to it for any use. It is prepared in the highest degree, and will 

 need no wintering, but may be used immediately ; and so may straw,' 



soot is universally known, but the application of rape-dust is only attended to in a few 

 counties. The expense incurred by the farmer for the above-mentioned hand-dressings, 

 is So considerable, that it should induce him to invent similar ones of a less expensive 

 nature. A good top-dressing may be made by mixing a due proportion of shambles-blood 

 and saw-dust, both which articles may be procured in every large town at a moderate 

 price : when the heat and putrid ferment is over, the compost is fit for use. Another top- 

 dressing, but of a richer quality, may be obtained by putting saw-dust, or moor-earth, at the 

 bottom of the necessaries, a practice that is followed in Flanders, with considerable advan- 

 tage. No kind of manure exceeds human ordure in strength, and on that account the 

 farmer should be careful to let it down to a suitable standard, before he applies it. All 

 large towns may be made to supply this kind of compost, at a price considerably under what 

 is given for soot and pigeon-dimg. A farmer would be benefited, if, at his own expense, 

 he was to erect commodious necessaries in places where numbers of manufacturers assemble. 

 The common sewers should, in no town, be permitted to run to waste. Their contents 

 should be directed into reservoirs, filled with the sweepings of the streets and all kinds of 

 light materials. Much excrementitious matter is conveyed into the ocean by rivers, wliere 

 probably it supplies the submarine plants with food, but of that circumstance we have but 

 an imperfect knowledge. Man, however, has this last substance returned to him by the 

 fish taken from the sea ; and in the end, the balance may be in his favour. This is an har- 

 monious rotation, which only the philosophic farmer can see and admire. Every farmer 

 knows that the animals under his protection must be supplied with proper food, and he 

 exerts every nerve to procure it ; but he should also know that the vegetables which grow 

 at his feet, require also their food. Let him take the same pains to procure it, and he 

 may rest assured that the earth will return with plenty and gratitude all that he bestows 

 upon her. 



5 The pulverized materials of our turnpike roads are well calculated for cold clay lands, 

 whether in pasture, or under the plough. But the commendable practice of removing the 

 dung of horses as soon as it has dropt, has diminished the value of this kind of manure. 



Volume II. 3 O 



