Liquid Manure, 



159 



above all^ its urine, the forcing nature of the ammoniacal saUs 

 which that fluid contains, added to the presence of the other mat- 

 ters which are the food of plants, and the constant supply of such 

 irrigation water in all seasons — he will readily give credence to 

 the talented editor of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture," 

 when he asserts that, by such treatment of the Edinburgh mea- 

 dows with the sewerage irrigation, they have been increased in 

 value several pounds per acre, yearly/" 



I have often employed, with decided effect, in my own garden, 

 for vines, peach and standard apple-trees, liquid manure, pre- 

 pared either by mixing one part by weight of cow-dung with four 

 parts of water, or the collected drainage of the stable and cow- 

 house. Of these the vine is by far the most benefited by the 

 application ; but to whatever fruit-tree the gardener has occasion 

 to apply manure, there is no form so manageable and so grateful to 

 the plant as the liquid. It has been found advantageous to plants 

 cultivated in stoves to apply even a liquid manure, composed of 

 six quarts of soot to a hogshead of w^ater ; and although this is a 

 very unchemical mixture, yet it has been found by Mr. Robertson 

 to be peculiarly grateful and nourishing to pines, causing them to 

 assume an unusually deep healthy green ; and for stoved mul- 

 berry, vine, peach, and other plants, the late Mr. Knight, of 

 Downton, employed a liquid manure, composed of one part of the 

 dung of domestic poultry, and four to ten parts of water, with the 

 most excellent result — the trees maintaining, at the end of two 

 years, '^'^the most healthy and luxuriant appearance imaginable."! 



In whatever way we view the question of liquid manure, to 

 which our Society now directs the attention of the English farmers, 

 an abundant field of research presents itself on every side : it is 

 evidently an investigation likely to amply repay the cultivator for 

 the labour he may be induced to bestow upon it. By such ma- 

 nures nourishment for vegetation is more equally diffused through 

 the soil, and becomes more speedily serviceable to the crop, than 

 by any other mode of cultivation. I have endeavoured, also, in 

 this paper, to convince the farmer of what I have long remarked 

 in my own practice — that a much smaller quantity of manure, if 

 uniformly mixed with land, is sufficient for all the purposes of 

 fertilization than is commonly believed. Such investigations must 

 be of the highest interest to the farmer and to the public in gene- 

 ral, for they relate to the increased produce of the land of Eng- 

 land ; and not only does a fortunate experiment carry with it its 

 own reward, but even an unsuccessful one'is not without its advan- 

 tages — it serves, at least, as a beacon to other cultivators, and 

 affords that satisfaction which ever accompanies the acquisition of 

 knowledge. 



* Practical Irrigator. 



t Trans. Hort. Soc. v. ii. p. 127. 



