Liquid Manure. 



153 



aware of the value of the addition of the city drainage of Win- 

 chester to the fertihzing qualities of the Itchcn river-water, and of 

 its superiority for irrigation after it has flowed past the city, having 

 water-meadows both above and below the town ; and he finds that, 

 if the water has been once used for irrigations, that then its fer- 

 tilizing properties are so materially reduced that it is of little value 

 for again passing over a meadow ; and so convinced is he of this 

 fact, by long experience, that, having in this way long enjoyed the 

 exclusive and valuable use of a branch of the waters of the Itchen 

 for some grass-land, a neighbour higher up the stream followed his 

 example, constructing some water-meadows, and using the water 

 before it arrived at those of my informant, who, in consequence, 

 found the water so deteriorated in quality (though not sensibly 

 diminished in quantity), that he had once thoughts of disputing the 

 right with his more upland neighbour. 



The employment of artificially-prepared liquid manure (though 

 little known at present in England) is very extensive on the Con- 

 tinent : the Swiss farmers call it guile ; in France it is denominated 

 lizier ; and by the Germans, mist-wasser. They prepare it 

 throughout many of the German states, and in the Netherlands, 

 by sweeping the excrements of their stall-fed cattle into under- 

 ground reservoirs, mixing with it four or five times its bulk of 

 water, according to the richness of the dung : five reservoirs are 

 generally employed, of such a size that they each take a week to 

 fill ; and thus each has four w eeks allowed to ferment before the 

 mass, which in this time becomes of an uniform consistence, is 

 removed, by means of a portable pump, in water-carts, or large 

 open vessels. A similar plan is adopted in the north of Italy, 

 and from time out of mind has been practised by the Chinese. In 

 that eiTipire, however, the cultivators chiefly employ night-soil, 

 which is made into cakes for this purpose with lime or clay, in all 

 their large cities, to prepare their liquid manure. 



It is from long experience, an admitted fact among the German 

 farmers, that there are no manures so pov/erful in their operation 

 as those which are liquids, such as human urine or bullocks' blood ; 

 so that no English farmer need fear deception as to their asserted 

 value. This very fact was submitted some years since to the 

 consideration of Professor Hembstadt, of Berlin, by the Saxon and 

 Prussian authorities, who were anxious to apply the contents of 

 the city drains towards fertilizing the barren lands in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Dresden and Berlin. This talented agriculturist 

 undertook, inconsequence, a series of valuable experiments, which, 

 varied in every possible way, were carried on for a considerable 

 period ; the result of them, so highly advantageous to the prosperity 

 of Germany, Hembstadt then published. They were repeated with 



