HUSB 
if clrcumftances will admit of its being harrowed in, fo 
muchjthe better. Poultry-manure is of the fame nature, 
and, where it can be had in any quantity, is an excellent 
top-dreffing, particularly for cold land. Columella ranks 
it next, in point of value, to the dung of pigeons. The 
dung of pigeons, poultry, and geefe, is alfo a great im¬ 
prover of meadow-land; but, before it is ufed, it ought to 
lie abroad fome time, that the air mayTweeten it a little, 
and mollify the fiery heat of thefe dungs. They ought 
to be dried before they are ltrewed, being apt to clod in 
wet ; and they lliould be mixed with earth, fand, or 
allies, to keep them from clinging together, that they 
may be ltrewed thin, being naturally very hot and Itrong. 
They are recommended as the heft-manure for afparagus, 
Ktrawberries, and any fort of flowers ; but for the latter 
they Ihould be rotted and well mixed with earth. They 
are laid to be good for trees whofe leaves are apt to turn 
yellow ; for this purpofe they lliould be -fpread an inch 
thick at the foot of the tree in autumn. Confiderable 
quantities of valuable manure might be railed by thole 
who, living near large commons, keep great flocks of geefe, 
if they were regularly houled at night, and-the place 
were littered with ftraw, fern, law-dull:, alhes, or fand. 
The fame advantage might be reaped by littering the 
places where other kinds of poultry rood. Every three or 
four weeks the places lliould be cleaned out, and the dung 
laid in/heaps to ferment, either alone or mixed with foil. 
Rabbit’s-dung appears, by an experiment of Mr. Ar¬ 
thur Young, to be fuperior even to that of pigeons, and 
to laft the longeft. But this experiment lliould be re¬ 
peated before we can give credit to what feems impro¬ 
bable. 
Human ordure, night-foil, or privy-manure, fays Mor¬ 
timer, is of all lorts of dung the greateft improver of 
land, efpecially if mixed with other dung, ftraw, or earth, 
to give it a fermentation, and to render it convenient for. 
carriage. It fells in foreign parts at a much greater rate 
than any other fort of manure. In London it may be. 
bought for 5s. a-load. Dr. .Hunter affirms that it is the 
richeft manure that can be introduced into the field; that 
in Flanders they ufe it with great fuccefs, either ltrewed 
.upon the land in the form of powder, or diffolved in wa¬ 
iter and thrown on with a wooden fcoop; but that it may 
be bell prepared as a top-dreffing by filling the pits of ne- 
ceflaries with earth or lime. 
In China and Japan wonderful attention is paid to lav¬ 
ing this manure, which in thole countries is preferred to 
all others, both on apconnt of its richnefs, and its being- 
free from weeds; infomuch that Thunberg, the famous 
botanift, palling through Japan with the Dutch embaffy, 
could lcarcely find any other plants in the corn-fields but 
the corn itfelf. In thole countries, the laws prohibit the 
wafte of human excrement, and every houfe has r'efer- 
voirs for it, to the great annoyance of the traveller through 
their towns. 
The illuftrious Swede’s account of the procefs of ma¬ 
nuring in Japan is worth tranfcribing. “There is no 
part of the world, fays he, where manure is gathered with 
greater care than it is here, inlomuch that nothing which 
can be converted to this ufe is loft. The cattle are fed at 
home the whole year round, fo that all their excrements 
are confined to the farm-yards; and it is a common fpec- 
tacle to fee old men and children Iollowing liorfes on the 
road with a Ihell fattened to the end of a Itick, to collect 
the dung, which is carried home in a balket. Urine is 
carefully collerted in large earthen pots, which are funk 
in the earth here and there in different parts, not only in 
the towns, but even befide the highways. The Japanel'e 
does not carry out his manure to be dried up' in a fallow- 
field by the fun, but gives himfelf the difgufting trouble 
of mixing up the .various excrements of man and bealt 
with water and urine, together with every kind of refufe 
from the kitchen ; this he carries in two large pails into 
his field, andwrith a ladle pours it upon the piant, when 
it has attained the height-of about fix inches, and receives 
A N D R Y. 559 
the whole benefit of it, the liquor at the fame time pene¬ 
trating immediately to the root. By this mode of ma¬ 
nuring, and at the lame time by the farmer’s indefatiga¬ 
ble weeding, the fields are fo completely cleared .of^weeds, 
that the molt (harp-fighted botanift would be fcarcely able 
to difcover a fingle plant of another fpecies among the 
corn.”' 
•Mr. Young found the effeft of night-foil (from 160 to 
320 bulhels on an acre) prodigious, trebling the produce 
on land unmanured ; and he ali'erts that, in all the expe¬ 
riments he has made with this manure, he has found the 
refult almoft uniform. Mr. Middleton obferves, that the 
herbage produced by it is capable of fattening the largeft 
cattle in lefs time than any other. And we know, from 
repeated experiment, that the fineft garden-vegetables 
may be produced by it, when properly employed, with¬ 
out the lealt injury to their tafte, even in the-rnoft deli¬ 
cate of them, fuch as-cauliflower, white brocoli, &c. In- 
ftead of a bad tafte being communicated to herbage by 
the ufe of this manure, it would feem, probably, that it 
conliderably improves its flavour, as it has been oblerved 
that the patches of fuch paftures as had been manured 
with this lubltance were conftantly eaten quite dole by 
horfes, cows, and young cattle, while in other places, 
there was much longer grafs. See Tranf. of the Society 
of Arts, vol. xvii. and Annals of Agriculture, vol. i. 
From thefe.fafts, the importance of this lubltance, as 
a manure, is evidently fuch, that every pdflible means 
Ihould be contrived to prevent its lofs, which is fliame- 
fully permitted, at prelent, to take place in many large 
towns, to the aftonilhing extent of more than two-thirds 
of the whole ; and fome method made ule of to render its 
conveyance and application more general and convenient, 
which canp,ot be a matter, of much difficulty, if once the 
attention of prartical agriculturifts be properly excited 
upon the fubjert, as we.lhall have occaiion farther to re¬ 
mark when we come to conlider the means of improving . 
and increafing manures. 
Urine of every fort is found to be of great ufe when 
laid upon grafs or young crops early-in the fpring.. The 
molt convenient way of applying it deems to be in the 
form of a compoft, with earth and a fmall proportion of 
lime. In this fhape it Is a good manure for molt toils, 
particularly fuch as are light, Tandy, or gravelly. Great 
quantities of this article might be laved, and judiciouiiy 
ufed would infure one or two good crops ; about all farms 
and great towns'll might be collected into refervoifs, with 
other excrernental matters,. without much trouble. In 
fome countries this is an object of police, efpecially in the 
towns where refervoirs are eftablilhed 1 for collertingr it. 
The farmers carry it away in barrels, and either fpread it 
immediately upon their fields, 1 .or mix it into compolts. 
Mortimer obferves, that, if urine be deftruftive to vege¬ 
tables, it is the indifcreet ufe of it in too large a quantity ; 
and that there is nothing which will improve land, or in- 
creafe the ftrength of manure, or help the. fermentation, 
of dung, more than urine; for which reafon, in Holland 
they areas careful to preferve this as dung; and Mr. Hart- 
lib, in his legacy, commends it as a great improver of land. 
No liable ought to be without a barrel or cittern funk 
at the extremity of the paved channel into which the 
urine runs. The rich juices of dunghills, fays Mr. Belcher, . 
ought to he ftriftly attended to; for which purpole layers 
of lime, chalk, or its rubbifli, Ihould be fpread under the 
litter in the farm-yard. Thefe are better, than earth, 
which is apt £0 be poachy, Unlefs of. a very dry nature; 
fomething however Ihould be laid to abforb the urine 
The great produrt, flays Mr. Young in one of his exp.eri 
ments, which attends the addition of urine to dung, af¬ 
fords a very important leflbn ; which is to manage dung- 
hills in fuch a manner, as to fave, if poffible, every drop. 
This is a point too much neglerted, and indeed by rnoft. 
common farmers very little attended to. 
Bones are ufed as a manure, both by themfelves, and 
-with other fubltances. The common way of treating 
Si. „ them,.. 
