28 ® 
On Soap-Suds as a Manure . 
nament to the brass plates. The plates themselves may 
be likewise rendered highly ornamental by fret work, or 
by bronzed figures, as lions* heads, &c. attacked to them. 
It is proposed to apply a similar contrivance to connect 
the sides and bottoms of soplias, which will add to their 
beauty, and render them capable of being taken apart, as 
a bedstead. A bedstead on the above plan may be seen 
at Mr. Thomas’s, cabinet maker, in fifth street, below 
Walnut. 
NO. 58. 
An Experiment on Soap-Suds as a Manure . By Mr . 
George Irwin ; with Remarks by the Reverend Tho- 
mas Falconer.* 
A FEW years ago my attention was attracted by the 
soil of a garden, reduced to a state of poverty very un- 
friendly to vegetation. Interest in its future produce in- 
fluenced my wishes for its restoration. An invigorating 
manure was necessary ; but such a stimulus could not be 
easily procured. While considering which of the succe- 
danea within my reach had the greatest probable appear- 
ance of succeeding, it occurred, that possibly some trivial 
advantage might be derived from the oil and alkali sus- 
pended in the waters of a washing.f Pits were imme- 
diately ordered to be made, and in them the contents of a 
tub, which my servant usually committed to the common 
sewer, were carefully deposited : as washing succeeded 
* Nicholson, vol. 20, p. 99. From Papers of the Bath and West of England 
Society, vol. 11, p. 261. 
f It is the common practice of some parts, at least, of the west of England, 
to use a lixivium, made by passing water through an appropriate strainer con- 
taining wood ashes, for the purpose of washing. This was probably the case 
here, though not mentioned by the author. 
Vol. ii. n n 
