57? ' II USB. 
found to accelerate putrefa&ion in a higher degree than 
any other fubftance. Mr. Smith, of Woodflock, near 
Sittinghourrie, in Kent, affirms (in the year 1735), that 
from the trials he has made of it for three years paft on 
chalky and dry calcareous foils, laid down with faintfoin 
or clover, the effects have been aftonifning, and entirely 
correfpond with the American accounts. He applied fix 
bufhels to an acre: the Americans feem to have been 
tifing fmaller quantities, even lo low as one bulhel to an 
acre. 
In the few inftances where gypfum has hitherto been 
ufed. in England,' it is faid to have produced aft'onifbing 
effefts in fiorne, in others no vifible advantage has been 
derived from it, and in feveral it items to have done mil- 
chief. .Upon lands where no ftimulating fubftance has 
been ’app'lied,' and which contain little or no calcareous 
earth, gypfum will be a .good manure ; accordingly in 
America, where the foil in moft places ■ is compofed’al- ; 
moil entirely of vegetable-earth, From decayed herbs, 
• leaves, and branches, and where fcar'cely a particle.of. 
calcareous earth is to be met with, gyplum will’produce 
good effects' ; but upon lands which have'been long in a 
Hate of cultivation, which have been frequently manured 
with fubftances containing much alkaline matter, its ef- 
fe6Is will not be perceptible ; and, where acid prevails, its 
bad effeffs will be vifible at once. Gypfum therefore is 
a manure that can feldom be ufed with advantage in this 
country upon arabfe lands ; there being few fituations in 
which the foil does not either contain calcareous matter 
in itfelf, or has received it as a manure. Yet in-didrifts, 
where gypfum can be conveniently procured, and in which 
limeftone is wanting, it is probable that it may be found 
a valuable acquifition to the hufbandry of fuch diftri&s; 
and it certainly appears to us unaccountable that more 
progrefs has not been made in England toward afcer- 
'taining its real value. 
Saline Substances. —Subftances that contain much 
faline matter in combination with their earthy and other. 
Ingredients', are found in many inftances, when properly 
employed as manures, to contribute greatly to the lup- 
port of vegetation. The- materials principally made ufe 
of in this way are the refufe of different manufactures, 
fuch as bleaching and foap-boiling, where they can be 
procured in' fuffioient quantities, as in the vicinity of large 
towns, and where fuch manufactories are carried on in an 
extenlive inannner; the-allies 1 remaining after the com- 
buftion or burning of various green vegetable matters. 
Wood, pit-coal, peat, &c. and, laftiy, fait itfelf. 
It is molt probably to the different alkaline principles 
contained in thefe ‘fubftances, from the great facility and 
power which they poflefs of acting upon and diffolving 
the parts'of animal and vegetable matters, efpecially fuch 
of the latter kind as have been,rendered infoluble by the 
abforption of the oxygen, or pure air, of the atmofphere, 
from long or frequent expolure to it, and by this means 
forming new faline compounds which' are foluble, that 
their beneficial effefts as manures are chiefly to be afcribed. 
But th'efe fubftances, befides their forming in’the foils, 
or the earthy materials with which they are mixed, fuch 
compounds as are beneficial in promoting the growth of 
vegetables, may be uleful in many cafes when properly 
applied, and ufed in fuffici'ent quantity, in correcting aci¬ 
dity, in altering the State or condition of the lands, as by 
the taking away of m6iit.ure from the lurface where it 
prevails in an over-proportion in meadows and paftures, 
afid thereby fuppoi’ts crop's of coarfe vegetables, and by 
•rendel'inii-'th'e texture of fuch grounds as are under the 
plough more open and friable, confequently more fuitable 
for the reception of the roots of cbrn-crops. 
A confiderable part, if not the whole, of what is ufed 
in manufactures, glafs excepted, will be uleful as a ma¬ 
nure, after the purpofe of the manufacture is ferved ; 
particularly in bleachihg ; the alkali of which will be 
found improved, in conlequence of the mucilage or oil 
which it has imbibed from the doth. 
1 N D It Y. 
Bleacher's ajhes of refufe, con fill principally of the hard 
undiffolved parts of pot-afli, kelp, weed-alh, and barilla. 
Alone they are too ftimulating,/and ought never to. be 
ufed but with earth offearth and dung ; they.a’nfw.er well 
with blood, garbage, and putrid animal fubftances. They 
are generally laid, upon fallows for wheat. The greateft 
advantage derived ffojn them is upon clay or deep loams; 
Upon rulhy-grounds, or coarfe wet meadows, they will be ' 
found particularly uleful. 
Soap-afils are in forrie’meafure the fame as the, refufe of 
bleach-ffields. They principally confift of lime., which is 
ufed by foap-makers' to'deprive the alkaline fairs of their 
fixed air,; the addition .of lime to foap-alhes. is therefore, 
unneceffarv. They are generally made into comports 
with earth and w.ell-fermented dung, in the proportion of 
two loads of dung to one of earth; the allies are then 
added, in' the quantity of one load to ten of this mixture, 
turning'and incorporating' the Whole completely. The. 
quantity necelfary for ftrong ctays or deep loams is ten 
cart-loads to an acre. If the dung has been well fer¬ 
mented, perhaps the moft. profitable way of iifirig this' 
compoft will be as a top-drefliiig. harrowed in with the 
grain'; taking care however that the cauftic quality of the 
allies is properly blunted by a fuffioient mixture of dung 
and earth. Thefe aihes, when heat 1 mall, may be made 
into a rich compoft with oil and.earth, and ufed as a top-' 
drefling for young crops. They will deltroy ftugs and 
vermin of every defcription ; and are therefore highly va-' 
luable on lands where the early wheat is injured by the 
worm. Laid upon grafs-lands in the. end of autumn, 
this manure produces a deep verdure during the winter, 
and an early vigorous vegetation in the fpring; it i* there¬ 
fore particularly calculated for cold wet paftures. 
Soap-boilers' wafte, or afilep , is much commended as a. 
manure, both for corn and grafs, by lir Hugh Plat. It 
contains fifty-feven in the hundred of mild calx, eleven 
of magnefla, fix of argil, and twenty-one of fiiex. The 
effect on cold fward is faid to be very great. Mortimer . 
lays, he was told of one by Ware, who had a piece of 
land run over with broom and furze, which he 'manured 
with foap-alhes, anchfowed fix years together with wheat, 
and had incredible crops. An Ell’ex farmer, in the Bath 
papers, informs us, that in April he top-dreffed half a 
field of clover with fixty bufhels to the acre of this ma¬ 
nure, and that this half produced near double the quan¬ 
tity of hay that the other did. He alfo ufed it with great 
fuccefs on cold wet fpongy meadow-land. It apparently, 
dried it, and made it produce much greater crops of" 
grafs. 
Soap-ley confifts of alkaline falts and .oil, and is pro¬ 
duced by the folution of foap in water. The quantity of 
this that is daily wafted is immenfe, and forms a contrail 
to the ftrift economy of the Chinefe, where even the 
foap-fuds of the barbers are faid to be carefully preferved. 
It mould all go to enrich the compoft dung-hill. 
The afies, or earthy faline matters, which remain after 
the combuftion of different frelh vegetable products, are 
all of them beneficial when judicioufly employed as ma¬ 
nures; but, as this means of producing manure is much 
too wafteful and uneconomical a practice to be adopted, 
except in particular inftances, as where wood and other 
vegetable produftions are very abundant, and ufed com¬ 
monly as' fuel, or where they cannot be readily cleared 
away by other more advantageous methods, as ten or fif¬ 
teen parts, and in feme cafes confich.rably more, of fuch 
materials are diffipated and loll during the procefs, they 
can but feldom be made ufe of in the way of dreflings for 
land. Where they can be procured in fufficient quanti¬ 
ties for thefe purpofes, they may, probably, be employed 
to the greateft advantage by being mixed \yith a good 
portion of rich vegetable mould, of peat-earth, and a 
cfuantity of well-fermented dung; as, in fuch a compound 
ItatejSthey are capable of being applied, more extenfively, 
and at the fame time in the moft favourable condition for 
the fupport of vegetation. When made ufe. of on the 
1 - heavy 
