LIQUID MANURE. 
539 
beiielicial; I feel a pride in stating that, in more than one instance, 
I have been the means pf establishing this practice on an extensive 
scale. 
If we apply the best manure to grass land in dry weather, the 
herbage appears to derive no benefit from it; but as soon as rain 
falls, the water acts as a vehicle to convey the fertilizing qualities to 
the roots, and in twenty-four hours perceptible improvement may be 
observed. That plants will take liquids into their systems highly 
impregnated and coloured with both animal and vegetable matter is 
a fact well authenticated, it having been detected both in the stems, 
leaves, and fruits; and as this liquid is j^roduced from a mass of 
dung which has undergone the three first processes of fermentation, 
it is perhaps in quality more congenial to plants than any article 
procured by artificial means. If, in a chemical point of view, it is 
compared with the constituent parts of plants, the result will be so 
analogous, that the conclusion cannot be otherwise than that this 
very material is the food of plants, and all manure must be reduced 
into a soluble state before the roots of plants can take it in. 
As a proof of the benefit of liquid manure, I will introduce ano¬ 
ther experiment; I took in the month of March about twenty 
cauliflower plants, cleaned their roots, and weighed them separately 
to adjust their size. I collected as many kinds of compost, from the 
very best earth, to the most sterile gravel sand, &c. and by a proper 
selection of equal sized and shaped pots, they were all placed under 
similar circumstances, excepting the roots; I ajDplied the liquid food 
to those in the most barren soil, which enabled them to make as 
good progTess, and become as fine plants as those in the most fertile^ 
earth, that had been well manured and otherwise suitably prepared. 
It will be of great advantage to all sorts of herbaceous plants if 
their roots be well saturated with it in the month of March; and it 
possesses these advantages over every other manure, namely, it 
penetrates immediately to every extremity of the roots of plants in 
a prepared state; and the seeds of weeds, so very abundant in dung, 
are by this process not so liable to be sown. Those who wish to 
consider the matter in a chemical point of view, will find much light 
thrown on the subject, by a reference to that excellent paper by the 
Author of the Domestic Gardener s Manual, inserted in p. 242 and 
243 of your Register. 
I would recommend a pump to be put down for the purpose, 
because it draws the liquid at the lowest level, and of course supplies 
us with the most concentrated parts; the working barrel should be 
composed of nothing more than four scantlings of wood, metal does 
