it is applied ; but it cannot be ploughed in too fresh, 
though the quantity should be limited. Mr. Young 
records an experiment, in which herrings spread 
over a field and ploughed in for wheat, produced 
so rank a crop, that it was entirely laid before 
harvest. 
The refuse pilchards in Cornwall are used 
throughout the county as a manure, with excellent 
effects. They are usually mixed with sand or soil, 
and sometimes with sea-weed, to prevent them from 
raising too luxuriant a crop. The effects are per- 
ceived for several years. 
In the fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and 
Norfolk, the little fish called sticklebacks, are 
caught in the shallow waters in such quantities, 
that they form a great article of manure in the land 
bordering on the fens. 
It is easy to explain the operation of fish as a 
manure. The skin is principally gelatine ; which 
from its slight state of cohesion is readily soluble 
in water : fat or oil is always found in fishes, either 
under the skin or in some of the viscera ; and their 
fibrous matter contains all the essential elements of 
vegetable substances. 
Amongst oily substances, blubber has been em- 
ployed as manure. It is most useful when mixed 
with clay, sand, or any common soil, so as to ex- 
pose a large surface to the air, the oxygene of 
which produces soluble matter from it. Lord 
Somerville used blubber with great success at his 
farm in Surrey. It was made into a heap with soil, 
and retained its powers of fertilizing for several 
successive years. 
§ 3 
