ANALYSIS OF MANURES. 
495 
made and published for general information 
ought to be all reported in the same language 
and terms, and the particulars given under 
the same heads. If professors would but re- 
member that they are writing for the public, 
and not exclusively for one another, it would 
be useful to them, and lead them to be intelli- 
gible in their lessons, that the public might 
learn with facility, and study with profit and 
advantage. 
CHEMICAL AND OTHER MANURES. 
There are so many ways of applying ma- 
nure, that the quantity to be given is very 
problematical. He who sows the manure with 
the seeds does not use the quantity which is 
necessary when the whole ground is to be 
fertilized. Chemical manures, and those 
which are rapidly soluble, should not be put 
in much below the surface, because the rains 
wash it down quite low enough ; and if we 
might advise, we should recommend all ma- 
nures to be generally instead of partially 
applied, because you can better calculate the 
heart in the ground than when the crop is 
made to clear off all the fertilizing qualities in 
the first season. We dislike all temporary 
fertilizers, and all temporary applications of 
permanent manures. When the ground is all 
alike, there is some calculation of what it can 
do, and what it requires ; but when the fer- 
tilizer is confined to the ridge which is sown, 
and the other portions of the ground go with- 
out, there is no drawing a fair conclusion. 
We know the doctrine preached is that of 
putting on only what the crop will take off, 
and then the ground is alike after the crop is 
gone. Experience do'es not justify this. Try 
the experiment ; plant or sow on the drill, 
and between the drill, and see if they grow 
alike. Not a bit of it. Let the gardener 
apply his manure alike all over the piece, as 
if he were going to sow broadcast ; he can 
then always judge what it will require, or if 
it will require anything, for the next crop, 
much better than if he partially dressed just 
where his plants are to grow. Salts of all 
kinds and chemical manures should always be 
mixed with three, four, or five times their 
weight of sand or light earth, and then laid 
evenly over the surface. He may then fork it in 
with the top three or four inches ; and having 
given it a good soaking with water, it may be 
prepared at any time for sowing by merely 
raking the surface, and it is ready for planting 
without raking. 
All ground ought to be dug well before 
any of the chemical or easily soluble manures 
are applied, because it does not answer to put 
them in so deep as dung is usually put. But 
the most even way of applying soluble dress- 
ings is in water, sufficiently diluted that the 
soil may be equally wetted three or four 
inches deep. 
Among the popular manures of the present 
day there are many Avhich are efficacious or 
mischievous according to the quantity. Salt, 
for instance, may be applied at the rate of 
3 cwt. per acre with advantage; but Mr. 
Johnson says it may be given at the rate of 
12 cwt. We know that crops have been 
killed with less, but that says nothing. Alum, 
by the same authority, must only be given at 
the rate of 40 lbs. per acre. Bone dust, or 
calcined bones, a ton and a half as the maxi- 
mum, half the quantity as a minimum. Car- 
bonate of ammonia, 160 lbs.; carbonate of 
soda, from 160 to 640 lbs. (a wide difference) ; 
Daniels' Bristol manure, half a ton ; graves, 
half a ton ; gypsum, 40 lbs. ; Hunt's new fer- 
tilizer, 320 lbs. ; Liverpool animalized manur- 
ing powder, 27 cwt. ; muriate of ammonia, a 
pound to a rod ; muriate of lime, 2 lbs. ; 
nitrate of soda, 160 lbs. to the acre; pearl 
ash, 320 lbs. ; phosphate of ammonia, 160 lbs. ; 
rags, 3 cwt. to 12 cwt. ; rape cake and rape 
dust, 6 cwt. ; saltpetre, 1 60 lbs. ; sulphate of 
ammonia, the most useful of all perhaps in 
gardens, lib. to the square rod; sulphate of 
magnesia, 1 lb. ; sulphate of potash, 2 lbs. ; 
sulphate of soda, 2 lbs. ; superphosphate of 
lime, 80 lbs. per acre ; urate of London Ma- 
nure Company, 320 lbs. These are, in gene- 
ral, the quantities published on the authority 
of the dealers, and adopted by Mr. Johnson in 
1 844 ; but the improved methods of applying 
them, and the facilities with which the best 
article can be procured, instead of the spuri- 
ous, enable the cultivator to save from the 
quantities named, except when the article is 
distinct and alone, as sulphate of ammonia, or 
sulphate of magnesia. The mixtures sold by 
individuals and companies must be used ac- 
cording to the dealers' directions, because they 
alone know the strength. They are interested 
in telling us the best quantities, because ma- 
nuring being the most costly part of cultiva- 
tion, drives men to the best and cheapest mar- 
ket. Poittevin's disinfected manure, Potter's 
guano, Hunt's guano, Lane's carbon, Lane's 
humus, Law's patent manure, and some others, 
can only be appreciated after being used as 
directed by the vendors. They know the 
quantity most efficacious, taking price and 
usefulness into account. Many of these pre- 
pared manures are from night soil, the most 
valuable of all, if properly applied ; and it is 
to be regretted that a single shilling should be 
expended in imported manures while millions 
of pounds' worth of the soil in this country 
are washed away in rivers, to the detriment 
of the water and the loss of the state. As, 
however, nine-tenths of the community do not 
