626 = 360 
Practical Agriculture. 
Farming with- 
out manure. 
irrigation. 
Mr. Mech 
practice. 
Other ex 
amples. 
Farmyard - 
manure. 
contrary, are said to be deteriorated by the process, no mattt 
in what condition the lime is applied. 
Corn- and hay-farming without farmyard-manure, by aid > 
deep and thorough steam-cultivation and plentiful applicatioi 
of artificial fertilisers to compensate for straw sold off, is pra 
tised with success by enterprising farmers, such as Mr. Jol 
Prout, of Blount's Farm, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. Bi 
very few farms exist on which the ordinary system of convertir 
straw into manure and carting this on to the land is suppl 
Liquid-manure mented or altogether supplanted by the system of liquid manurii 
and irrigation. 
At Tiptree Hall, near Kelvedon, Essex, Mr. J. J. Mechi li 
made celebrated his method of cutting straw for food instead 
using it for bedding ; of keeping cattle, sheep, and pigs, upc 
sparred floors, catching the solid and liquid droppings, and co 
ducting them into a cistern or tank, and by steam-power pumpii 
the liquid-manure through pipes laid underground to hydran' 
whence, by means of hose, it is distributed over the surface 
the fields. 
Selling the solid-manure from cow-byres, pumping the liqui 
manure to a head on the highest part of the farm, then 
conveying it by underground-pipes to the fields, and dist) 
buting it by half-inch iron-pipes in movable 6-feet lengtl 
has been adopted only in some other scarce instances. Mai 
good managers, however, economise the liquid-drainings frc 
their farmyards by tanks, and either cart the liquid upon t 
land or absorb it in compost-heaps. In some situations, whe 
it can flow in channels by natural gravitation, the liquid is us 
for irrigating ryegrass, other green forage, or permanent grass. 
With regard to farmyard-dung, which, in spite of the vi 
extension of the trade in " bag " manures, and in spite of t 
increasing sale of straw and other manurial produce, remai 
yet the English farmers' " sheet-anchor," it cannot be deni 
that much imperfect and wasteful management prevails in ma 
parts of the kingdom. But there is often this excuse for t 
occupiers : — the exposure of farmyard-manure to all the drenchi 
rains of winter (with these made cumulative by discharging ir i 
the open courts the water from the unspouted roofs of ban 
byres, stables, granaries, and cart-sheds), and the draining awiiy 
the soluble constituents with which the dung has been enrich 
at a heavy outlay for roots and fodder and feeding-stuffs, ; 
unavoidable until the proprietors erect farm-premises plann 
with a view to the economical manufacture and preservation 
manure. Nevertheless, all the best-farmed districts abound w 
examples of well-constructed buildings ; while there are numh 
I 
