Flemish Manure. 
319 
By a singular anomaly, the reservoirs for this manure, as 
ordinarily constructed in the open fields, are included in the 
first class of unwholesome works (" etahlissements insaluhres "), 
and as such are subject to formalities and fettered by restrictions 
which impede their formation. It is desirable that this rigorous 
law should be modified. Assuredly there is not one enlightened 
agriculturist — not one man of education — who would dare to 
maintain that the reservoirs for Flemish manure are sources of 
unhealthiness. At the worst, they are but a cause of slight 
annoyance to the passer-by at the moment when their contents 
are being taken out ; but this drawback is clearly not worthy of 
serious consideration. 
ord Question. — Can Flemish manure be used for all sorts of 
crops — tobacco, beetroot, corn, rape, flax, artificial grasses ? 
Flemish manure is used in this district for all sorts of crops 
with more or less profusion ; and in many cases, if carefully 
managed, it may be applied in large quantities without injuring 
the quality of the produce. 
Tobacco, when grown near towns, is often dressed with an 
abundant quantity of this manure ; nevertheless, the Excise 
forbid the use of it, because it is supposed that it tends to pro- 
duce leaves deficient in gum and difficult to dry. It is true that 
by applying, as was formerly very generally done, a profusion of 
Flemish manure between the rows of tobacco in full growth, a 
vigorous impulse is given to the vegetation, which lasts a long 
time. The leaf subsequently ripens with difficulty, and doubt- 
less absorbs a large quantity of alkaline salts, which render it 
" hygrometric." * But if, on the contrary, the liquid manure 
is applied to the soil before the tobacco is transplanted, the 
leaves will prove of good quality, and the plant shoot vigorously, 
even though it grow in land long accustomed to this course of 
treatment. Thus, with the addition of farmyard-manure and 
rape-cake, about 2900 gallons per acre of this fertiliser may, 
without inconvenience, be used.f There are, indeed, farmers 
who claim to have produced good tobacco-crops by applying to 
the ground destined for the plants as much as from 9000 to 
10,000 gallons per acre, besides the farmyard-manure ; taking 
care that three-fourths of the dressing should be applied in 
* That is to .say, retentive of moisture, and an index of tiie varying amount of 
that moisture. 
t These figures, as -srell as those that follow, must only be taken approximately 
— they necessarily vary according to the value of the manure, which the farmer 
calculates with more or less exactness, and with the customs belonging to the 
locality or the particular property. Besides, allo\iance must always be made for 
the fertilizing matters which remain in the soil, and whose amount depends on 
former crops, and the manures applied to them. 
