The Best Means of applying Liquid Manure. 
25 
By my arrangements I accomplish all these, and at the same 
time simplify the system, and bring it within the grasp of the 
tenant-farmer. 
My plan is to lay only one straight main pipe under ground, 
bisecting the piece to be irrigated, the branches being portable, 
laid on the surface parallel on either side, at sufficient intervals, 
and shifted from the land just ploughed up out of Italian rye- 
grass, to the field just laid down with Italian ryegrass. By having 
only the land immediately around the farmery treated in this 
manner for providing a supply of Italian ryegrass, the distance of 
haulage is greatly reduced, and the length of main pipe also. 
The rotation of crops would then be as follows : — 1st, wheat ; 
2nd, turnips ; 3rd, Italian ryegrass ; 4th, Italian ryegrass : or 
1st, turnips; 2nd, early short-straw peas; 3rd, Italian ryegrass 
sown the instant the peas are off in July or early in August — 
this would give decidedly the best chance to the ryegrass, but it 
would be at the loss of the difference between the value of the 
wheat and pea crops, the latter being more hazardous. 
If, in addition to this, my distributing-machine (figs. 1 and 2) 
be used, which admits of a wider internal between the metallic 
pipes, the saving of time, manure, and power in spreading the 
manure over the land will be still greater. The progress of the 
machine is altered bv change-wheels, so that any quantity can 
be applied, from 2000 gallons to above 23,000 per acre. The 
manager of the distributor swings the jet or spreader from side 
to side, throwing the manure over about 22 yards wide : with this 
width the machine will need to travel 220 yards to cover an 
acre. A good hydraulic engine Avill force 80 gallons a minute 
through 3-inch hose ; so that to apply 3000 gallons will take 
37^- minutes, and the machine must travel at the rate of only 
about three yards per minute, or a little more than a mile 
in nine hours ; but as it must go twice over the ground, it 
must go at double that rate. One man with proper crank and 
handle will easily propel it over the ground, if mounted upon 
Boydell's rails ; and the whole weight of it when starting, with 
all the hose full of manure upon it, will not be more than 
25 cwt., while every twelve yards it progresses it will uncoil a 
cwt. of hose and manure : the work will be eased as it recedes 
from the portable hydrant and pipe, and gradually increases as it 
advances, coiling up the hose again ; the machine is then run on 
to its proper position in the middle of another 22 yards, or other 
width determined upon, when the work progresses as before. 
Thus, in 37^ minutes, or under two-thirds of an hour, above 13 tons 
of liquid manure can be spread over an acre or any other greater 
or less quantity of land, the flow from the spreader being the 
same — viz., 80 gallons per minute, if 3-inch hose; 56 gallons, if 
2i-inch 
