Flemish Manure. 317 
annals of agriculture. Meanwhile, our respectful acknowledg- 
ments are due for honest reports of efforts made in this direction ; 
and if hitherto losses have been incurred, whether from inex- 
perience, or from over-luxuriant crops having been smitten down 
bj storms, we may hope that ultimately this spirited exponent of 
the tubular system of irrigation — 
" Per (lamna, per ca3(les, ab ipso 
Ducat opes, animumquc ferro." 
XVIII. — Report on the Employment of Flemish Manure (Nir/ht- 
Soil). Drawn up for the Municipality of Paris, by a Com- 
mittee appointed by the Agricultural Society of Lille, in. 
answers to questions put to that Committee by M. Huet, 
Civil Engineer of the Department " des Fonts et Chaussees.'" 
Translated by P. H. Frere. 
1st Question. — Can Flemish manure be employed exclusively — 
that Is to say. Can it entirely take the place of farmyard-manure,, 
rape-cake, &c. ? 
On small occupations in the neighbourhood of Lille, Flemish 
manure Is often used with profusion, and almost exclusively 
but in farms on a larger scale there is rarely an attempt made tO' 
fertilise the soil with this alone. 
There can be no progressive agriculture without stock, and 
consequently without straw-manure. If, then, the proprietor 
makes use of a considerable proportion of this stable-manure, he- 
will do well to apply it in connection with the Flemish, rather 
than to use the latter on one part of his land, and the former 
separately on another. On our farms stable-manure is applied 
to the same soil once In three or four years ; each part receives 
its portion In turn, on the recurrence of certain crops, and the 
Flemish manure Is subsequently applied, either at the same 
point in the rotation, or the year following, according to circum- 
stances. On strong lands, especially. It would be unreasonable 
to attempt to found a system of fertilisation upon the exclusive 
use of night-soil. Farmyard-manure is not only valuable for the 
saline and nitrogenised matter It contains ; it also acts admlrablj 
in improving the texture of clay soils. The straw helps to give 
to the land that porosity without which cultivation would be a 
delusion ; still more, there is no doubt but that the silica which 
it contains Is In a state more favourable for assimilation by the 
cereals than that of the natural silicates. 
From the results of direct experiments we are convinced that 
