93S 
Substances of the animal kind, when re- 
duced by the process of putrefaction, or other 
means, into a soft, pulpy, or mucilaginous 
state, are found by experience to afford those 
matters which are suited to the nutrition and 
support of plants with greater readiness, and 
in more abundance, than most other bodies 
that can be employed. By chemical analysis 
it has been seen that the component mate- 
rials of these substances, so far as agriculture 
is concerned, are principally water, jelly, or 
mucilage, and saccharine oleaginous matters, 
with small portions of saline and calcareous 
earthy substances. Hence animal matters, 
though they agree in some circumstances 
with vegetable productions, each having, in 
common water, saccharine, and calcareous 
matters, are far more compounded; and in 
animal substances, some of these materials 
are in large proportion, while in vegetables 
they only exist in a very small degree; and 
tne jelly, which in some measure resembles 
the gum and mucilage of plants, differs like- 
wise from them, in its having much less ten- 
dency to become dry, as well as in its pro- 
perty of attracting humidity from the atmo- 
sphere, and of running with great rapidity 
into a state of putrefaction and decay. 
All thes^ principles ef animal substances 
are resolved by their ultimate decomposition 
into other matters, such as the different ga- 
seous fluids that have been mentioned above, 
carbon, phosphorus, lime, &c. 
Animal substances of every kind, on being 
deprived of their vital principle, have a quick 
tendency to take on or run into the state of 
putrefaction ; a process which is considerably 
affected and influenced by the circumstances 
under which it is produced. But in the horny 
and more compact animal matters, this ten- 
dency to putrefaction and decomposition is, 
under similar circumstances, much less rapid 
than in such as are of a less firm and dense 
texture. 
Hard animal substances. In the matters 
of this sort that are employed as manures, 
there is considerable differences in respect to 
their texture and firmness, some being quite 
firm and solid, such as bones, horns, hoofs, 
shavings of horn, and some other similar 
substances, while ethers are more soft and 
pliable. The bones of all animals are capable 
of affording much nutritious matter to plants, 
but those which are procured from cattle that 
have been kilted when fat, are the best for the 
purposes of manure. Those which have 
been boiled are far inferior, in this view, to 
those which have not undergone that process, 
as by such means they are principally robbed 
of their oily and mucilaginous properties, and 
consequently must yield much less nourish- 
ment to the* immediate crop, whether it be 
grain or grass. All these sorts of substances 
require to be ground down in mills construct- 
ed for the purpose, or otherwise reduced into 
small pieces, before they are laid on and mix- 
ed with the soil. They arc excellent for po- 
tatoes. 
These substances are constituted of a con- 
siderable proportion of mucilaginous or ge- 
latinous matter, a slight portion of fat, 
and an earthy salt composed of the phos- 
phoric acid and calcareous earth. If great 
heat be applied, they afford a large quantity 
of hydrogen gas, carbonic acid gas, and a 
volatile alkaline liquor. From the nature of 
2 
HUSBANDRY. 
these different principles, it is evident that 
some sorts of substances may be blended and 
united with the reduced particles of bony 
matters, so as to promote their effects, as 
manures, in a considerable degree, such as 
lime, chalk, peat, earth, and good vegetable 
mould, in suitable proportions, as by such 
means new combinations may be formed 
highly favourable to the process of vegeta- 
tion. 
Soft animal substances. There are various 
matters of this nature that may be of use for 
the purpose of improving land as manures, 
some ot which have yet been but little at- 
tended to by the farmer. Of this sort are 
greaves, or the residuum which is left after 
the making of candles, and the scum which 
is collected in the boding or refining of sugar. 
Different trials with the former have fully 
convinced us that it is a substance that pos- 
sesses great powers when employed as a ma- 
nure. And although it is a substance which 
is generally procured at a high price, from 
its going a great way, and being a lasting 
manure, it may probably be more frequently 
had recourse to than has hitherto been the 
case. It is mostly procured in the state of 
hard compressed square cakes, though some- 
times in a soft condition, without having un- 
dergone any pressure. When in the former 
state, the cakes must be broken down and 
reduced into as great a state of division as 
possible, which may be rather a troublesome 
and expensive process, except a mill, or 
some proper machine for the purpose, be em- 
ployed. Bat when it has been even reduced 
to the finest state possible, it will still be im- 
proper for application as a manure, until it 
has been mixed and incorporated with a pretty 
large proportion of some rich earthy sub- 
stance with which it may combine. Excellent 
for turnips. 
A combination of lime and greaves, mixed 
with mould from the headlands, tn the pro- 
portion of about 50 bushels of lime to a ton of 
greaves. This composition resembles sugar 
scum, which consists of lime and bullocks’ 
blood. 
Lime might thus be combined with bones 
or woollen rags, or with a compost of earth 
and night-soil ; and would certainly greatly 
facilitate their conversion into manure, as 
well as render them more active in producing 
their effects in the support of vegetable crops. 
And by some of their properties being ab- 
sorbed by the lime, during the time of their 
decomposition, and afterwards parted with 
more slowly in the soil, they may also by 
such means be, probably, rendered more du- 
rable and lasting, as manures. 
There are still more substances of the ani- 
mal class, such as the blood, serum, wool, 
hair of animals, refuse of glue-makers, the 
cuttings of felt-mongers, the clippings of fur- 
riers, the scrapings of oiled-leather, and the 
chips or waste of shoe-makers, which may be 
made use of as manures, when they can be 
collected in sufficient quantities. These ani- 
mal materials, from their abounding in mu- 
cilage and oil, their great attraction for mois- 
ture, and their being readily soluble in water, 
contribute quickly to the support of vegeta- 
tion, but are not probably so durable in their 
effects upon land as many other substances. 
Hence they should only be made use of with 
a view to the immediate crop, which, we be- 
lieve, is pretty much the case in those places 
where they can be obtained in sttcii quantities 
as to be employed for the purposes of agri- 
culture. ° 
Various animal substances offthe fish kind, 
as the blubber remaining after the prepara- 
tion of oil from the whale, and ether large 
fishes, and different sorts of small fish, both 
of the shell and other kinds, may be employed 
as manures; and also the offals of such ani- 
mals, where tney can be procured in a large 
quantity, as in iarge towns, sea districts, and 
where they are cured or prepared in great 
numbers for the market. 
These substances may be readily reduced 
to that state which is proper for manure, by 
mixing with them a small portion of the car- 
bonat of lime, and afterwards, according to 
cii cumstances, a quantity, two or three times 
more than the whole, of good vegetable 
mould. 
'i he refuse of slaughter-houses and butch- 
ers’ shops may likewise be prepared and made 
use of in a similar manner to that offish. For 
as the manures that are formed from these 
animal materials are capable of affording 
much elastic volatile matters during their 
decomposition, they of course require to be 
well mixed and blended with such earthy 
substances as they can combine with, and 
render soluble, and in proportions suited to 
their powers, in order to produce the most 
beneficial effects on vegetation. 
Animal dungs. The animalized substances 
thcit however, most generally made use 
of as manures, are the excrements of various 
kinds of animals, which are found in very 
different conditions, or states of preparation 
and lichness, proceeding in some measure 
trom the kind of food on which the ani- 
mal has been fed, the matters with which 
they are incorporated, and the texture of the 
substances themselves. 
The dung of fat animals is unquestionably 
more rich, and consequently possesses greater 
powers of fertilization than the dung of lean 
ones; and that the quality of the dung of 
every sort of animal will in a great measure 
be proportioned to the goodness or poverty 
of its food. Thus, when the animal is fed oil 
oily seeds, such as lint, rape, and others of a 
similar nature, it will be the most rich ; when 
kept on oil-cake, or those seeds which have 
been deprived of part of their oily matter, 
the next so; on turnips, carrots, and such- 
like vegetable roots, the next; on the best 
hay, next; on ordinary hay, next; and on 
straw, perhaps, the poorest of all. 
The urine of animals appears to be a more 
perfect extract from the animal system than 
the other; it is therefore surprising that this 
valuable substance is not more attended to by 
agricultors. Let it be mixed with the dung- 
hill, or else carted to the field after it has 
passed through the putrefactive fermentation. 
Its effect on land is immediate. 
Some manures of this kind, such as the 
soil ot privies, is sometimes met with in a 
state fit to be applied to the ground, when 
not much mixed with fluid matters, such as 
urine. It most frequently happens, however 
that it is in such a liquid state as to require 
other more solid substances to be blended 
with it, before it can be conveniently applied 
to the soil. In doing this, too little regard 
seems to have in common been paid to the 
choice of the most proper materials ; but it 
