561 
HUSBANDRY, 
tan added to it, the heat will renew again, and laft for 
fome months, fo that t’nefe beds are by far the mod kindly 
for exotic plants; and whatever plants are plunged into 
thefe beds, if they are permitted to root the bottom of the 
pots, they will thrive more in one month after, than they 
did in four months while they were confined to the pots. 
Many'plants that root through the pots into the tan, fend 
forth roots upwards of twelve feet each way in lefs than 
three months, and the plants advance in proportion. 
After the tan is ufed for a hot-bed it may be fpread on 
the ground for manure, and will greatly enrich it ; but it 
is belt for cold ftrong land, becaufe it is of a warm na¬ 
ture, and will loofen and feparate the earth.* When this 
manure is laid upon grafs, it ihould be done foon after 
Michaelmas, that the winter rains may wafh it into the 
ground ; for, if it be laid on in the fpring, it will burn the 
grafs, and inftead of improving will greatly injure it, at 
lead for that feafon. Where it is ufed on corn-land, it 
Ihould be fpread on the furface before the laft ploughing, 
that it may be turned down for the fibres of the corn to 
reach it in the fpring; for, if it lies too near the furface, it 
will forward the growth of the corn in winter; but in the 
fpring, when the nourithment is chiefly wanted, it will be 
nearly confirmed, and the corn will receive little advan¬ 
tage from it. Nor will it be proper to have this manure 
lie too near the roots of any plants, for when this happens 
it is prejudicial to molt of them, but efpecially to bul¬ 
bous and tuberous-rooted flowers. But, when it is buried 
juft deep enough for the fibres of the roots to teach it in 
the fpring, the flowers have been exceedingly improved by 
it; and in fome places, where this manure has been ufed 
in kitchen-gardens, it has greatly improved the vegetables. 
In procefs of time tan is certainly converted into vege¬ 
table-mould. When it becomes rotten and is fpread 
pretty thick, it has been found ofgreat ufe to grafs-ground. 
But the molt likely method of rendering it ufeful is to 
mix it with lime, or perhaps with fait. Or after it is taken 
out of the tan-pit, and walhed, mix it with an equal quan¬ 
tity of frail liorfe-dung, including the litter, and cover it 
from rain, but let the whole be kept moift. When the 
heat is gone off, mix it with a frelh quantity of liorfe- 
dung, to renew the heat; when that is gone off, the whole, 
being made into a compoft with chalk, will form a very 
enriching manure. 
The refufe or pulp of pears and apples, which have been 
ground, and the liquor fqueezed from them, may likewife 
be converted to the purpofe of a manure in the cider-dif- 
trifts. When employed in this way, however, fome heavy 
fubftance, fuch as good earth with a little dung, fhould 
probably be mixed with it before it is put upon the foil, 
as by being blended with fuch materials it may be more 
conveniently and more extenfively applied. All decayed 
vegetable fubftances are ufeful as manure. Some proba¬ 
bly are little more than common earth or mould; but 
others have oily and other particles in them of confider- 
able value. Mortimer reckons the rotten wood of hedges 
and coppices to be a great improver of the foil, and in- 
ltances the earth where piles of faggots ftand. Miller re¬ 
marks, that rotten wood, and faw-duft when rotted, are a 
very good manure for ftrong land, becaufe they loofen the 
earth and render it light. Saw-duft frefti from the pit is 
not worth the carriage, although in a well-rotted ftate it 
becomes an excellent manure. All thefe fubftances may 
be added to ftrong heating dunghills ; as may alfo the 
grafs mown from lawns. Leaves of trees may be collected 
at the fall, and formed into a heating dunghill. They 
have been found to anfwer as a manure for potatoes. The 
furface-earth of woods, coppices, and plantations, being 
formed chiefly of rotten fticks and leaves, is very ufeful 
to the gardener for his flowers, mixed with fand, loam, 
and rotten dung. 
Rags. Woollen-rags in London are from 3s. 6d. to 
4s. 6d. the hundred-weight (in Berkfhire about 5s.) or 
about 4.1. 17s. the ton. Being generally in_ large pieces, 
they are chopped fmall, about an inch or two fquare. 
They are fown by hand, and ploughed in three months 
before fowing wheat or barley, and the quantity ufed is 
from fix to ten hundred-weight on a ftatute-acre ; if with 
dung, three hundred-weight. Mortimer lays they are a 
great improvement of chalky binding lands; that in his 
time many loads were fetched from London to Dunftable; 
that they coft 4d. a bufliel in London ; that they chopped 
them fmall and fowed them juft after the fowing of the 
corn, allowing four facks (of fix bufhels each) to an acre. 
Woollen-rags hold moilture, and are adapted to dry, gra¬ 
velly, and chalky, foils ; and fucceed in dry feafons better 
than moft manures ; but do little good on wet toils. Lon¬ 
don rags are belt; but the danger of catching the fmall- 
pox in chopping and fowing them, deters many farmers 
from their ufe. In Berkihire they are ufed for drefling 
wheat and clover-lays, and even upon light foils produce 
abundant crops. They are laid to produce very fenfible 
effects five or fix years after they are laid on, and to be 
better the fecond or third year than the firft. In Nor- 
thamptonfliire they are found to anfwer well as a prepa¬ 
ration for barley. 
Maiden or untried earth, fuch as is found fix or feven 
inches deep under turf on commons, headlands, and by 
the fides of roads in many places, when it is of a good 
quality, is of ineftimable value as a manure for fruit-trees, 
raifing thrubs and trees in nurferies, all forts of crops in 
kitchen-gardens, and ornamental flowers, as well as corn 
and grafs. The nunery-men near London fend many 
miles fora loamy maiden-earth, as abfolutely neceflary for 
their purpofe. Mr. Lawrence recommends it in prefer¬ 
ence to dung for both fruit and kitchen-garden, particu¬ 
larly for afparagus, laid a foot and a half deep, without 
any dung whatloever. Mixed with dung or lime it makes 
excellent manure for corn or turnips. 
Fullers'-earth, being of a very flit nature ; though not 
much ufed for the improvement of land, on account of 
the profit it yields for cleanfing and fcouring the wool¬ 
lens, See. is recommended as a great improver of fome 
forts of land, by fir Hugh Plat, Markham, Mortimer, and 
others. 
Doubtlefs there are many forts of earth that might be 
employed with fuccefs, befides thofe in common ufe, if 
they were examined by men fkilled in their refpeftive pro¬ 
perties, and applied by thofe who are verfed in their ope¬ 
rations. 
Fossil Substances. —Subftances of the calcareous 
kind, which are to be conlidered under this head, pro¬ 
duce eftedfts more or lefs powerful in promoting the growth 
of vegetable-crops, in fome meafure, acccording to the 
ftate and quantity in which they are applied, the nature 
of the foils on which they are employed, and the proper¬ 
ties of the matters with which they are combined. For, 
though calcareous materials have been made ule of as 
manures for a very great length of time, and been ap¬ 
plied in various ways, difficulties ltiil remain concerning 
the manner of their operation, in many cafes, which feem 
principally, however, to proceed from the want of proper 
diferimination in refpetft to the ftate of the different cal¬ 
careous fubftances at the time of their application, and 
their being made ufe of to different foils, without a fuffi- 
cient diftindtion of the properties of the materials of 
which they are conftituted or compofed. There is like-v 
wife another circumftance, wh’ich the ingenious experi¬ 
mental enquiries of a late author (Mr. Tenant, in the 
Phil. Tranf.) have fliown to be neceflary to attend to, 
which is, the fubftances the calcareous material is com¬ 
bined with ; as he has found that, where magnefia is in 
union with the calcareous matter, it is not by any means 
fo beneficial for the purpofes of manure and promoting 
vegetation, as where no fuch mixture or combination is 
prefent, efpecially when ufed in the fame proportions. 
From fand entering largely into the compofition of lime- 
ftone or other calcareous matter, in fome cafes, as it is a 
fubltance 
