H'USB 
'On thm llmeftone at a dl fiance from dung this is an in¬ 
valuable manure, at the rate of three quarters an acre for 
■barley, and four for wheat, fown by hand, and harrowed 
in with the-grain ; if rain fall within a week or ten days 
after lowing, the crop is generally good ; but, if no rain 
fall till long- after, it is but little benefited by this expen- 
five dreffing; nor is the crop of the fucceeding year bene¬ 
fited by it. 
The price of this manure having advanced fo much 
as to render it doubtful whether it will anfwer to the 
farmer, Dr. Hunter has invented an oil-compoft that 
comes cheap, and is of eafy carriage. It is made of Ame¬ 
rican pot-alh, twelve pounds, broken into final! pieces, 
and put into a convenient veflel with four gallons of wa¬ 
ter. When it has hood twenty-four hours, add of coarfe 
train-oil fourteen gallons. In a few days the fait -will be 
diilblved, and the mixture upon Itirring will become near¬ 
ly uniform. Then take fourteen bufiiels of land, or 
twenty of dry mould; upon thefe pour the liquid ingre¬ 
dients. Turn the compolition frequently over, and in fix 
months it will be fit for ufe. The above quantity is fuf- 
ficient for an acre. For the convenience of carriage, no 
more earth is here direfted to be ufed than will etfeiflu- 
ally take up the liquid ingredients. But, if the farmer 
choofes to mix up the compolf with the mould of his 
field, he may ufe a larger portion of earth, by which means 
he will be enabled to diftribute it with more regularity 
upon the furface. This oil-compoft: is only intended to 
fupply the place of rape-duft, foot, woollen-rags, and other 
expenfive hand-dreffings. It is in all refpefts inferior to 
'rotten dung; where that can be obtained, every kind of 
manure mult give place to it. For, at the fame time that 
dung affords nourilhment, it opens the pores of the earth ; 
wh reas hand-drelfings give food to plants, but contriLmte 
nothing towards loolening the foil. This is an ufeful 
and praflical diftinftion. 
Dr. Hunter recommends it, but with the diffidence of 
-a true philofopher, who depends ultimately upon experi¬ 
ence, to be fown immediately after the grain, and both 
harrowed in together. He thinks it will anfwer bell for 
winter crops ; for, from the unfluoufnefs of its nature, it 
is more than probable that it lhould lie expoled for a 
long time to the influence of the weather ; which benefit 
it is deprived of when ufed for barley, and fuch crops as 
are fown late in the l’pring. For this reafon the compoft 
upon turnips has proved generally unfuccefsful; but then 
thole parts of the field on which it had been fpread pro¬ 
duced the bell crops of grain the following year. From 
this flow manner of giving out its virtues, it feeins to be 
•an improper drelfing for all plants that have a quick ve¬ 
getation. 
All lands that have been exliaufted by frequent crops, 
are robbed of their oily particles, and thus become bar¬ 
ren. 1 The oil-compoft, by plentifully reftoring particles 
fimilav to thofe which have been carried oft’, Ihouid feem 
to be a proper rellorative. To lands under fuch circum- 
Itances, lime is the word manure that can be applied. 
Dr. Hunter has followed up his theory with experi¬ 
ments. For corn and horizontal feeders he recommends 
it to be fown upon the furface with the hand ; for cab¬ 
bages, hops, beans, carrots, and all tap-rooted plants, it 
is belt to be worked into the foil by the plough or fpade. 
When diftributed upon the furface it is loon meliorated 
by the adliori of the air, rains, and dews ; but when 
worked into the foil it is deprived of thole neceffary in¬ 
fluences. 
Some injudicious enquirers have placed a handful of 
the compoft dole to the roots of a cabbage-plant; hence 
death or a feeble vegetation enfued; and an argument 
was raifed againft the nutritive power of the compoft. 
Lime, the allies of burnt vegetables, Hale urine, goofe and 
hog dung, when improperly applied, are all poilons. 
Chriftopher Baldwin, efq. of Clapham-park, Surrey, 
jmrehafed lixty gallons of the bottoms or foots of oil, and 
a rich thick South-Sea whale-oil at iq-d. the gallon; and, 
Vol. X. No. 63 j. 
A N D R Y. 577 
having made a bottom of twenty loads of mould with 
eight loads of dung on if, he carried on three loads of 
light fandy mould, and one load of brick-and-morfar 
rubbifh ground line; having mixed thefe well, he made ;t 
kind of dilh of it about five feet wide and ten feet long; 
into this he put half the oil in Auguft ; the heat of the 
fun foon made the thick oil fink into the compoft, when 
it was directly thrown up into a heap, broke down again; 
and by five or fix turnings well mixed together, and left 
in a heap two days, when it was fpread equally over the 
whole dunghill ; twenty loads more of good mould were 
then carried on, eight loads of dung, and the remaining 
thirty gallons of oil were mixed as before in landy mouid 
and mortar rubbifh, and equally fpread over, and the 
whole was covered by trimming the four fides of the 
dunghill, and throwing it on the top. 
Thus it lay more than two months, when it was cut 
down by mattocks, carefully broke, well mixed, and 
turned over. The end of March it was carried on a five- 
acre field, fpread and ploughed in ; it lay a fortnight, the 
land was then ploughed again, and on the azd of April 
the field was drilled with barley, two buihels to an acre. 
The crop was fixty bufiiels on an acre of the bell quality ; 
five quarters were lent into Norfolk for feed-barley, un¬ 
der the denomination of fifteen-coomb barley; and it 
weighed 220’ib. the lack, or 5slb. the bufhel, Wincheftef 
meafure. This barley followed oats upon a lay of fix years 
old. The oats had fuffered much from the wire-worm, 
which this manure completely deftroyed, the barley not 
fuffering from it in the lead. Mr. Baldwin ufed this oil- 
conipolt with fuccefs on ridges of lummer-cucumbers, 
and on cabbages. 
Mr. Baldwin had not the fame fuccefs in Hampfhire 011 
a fix-acre piece of ftrong land, with large Hones, very 
poor, that had neverbeen dunged. Five acres were chalked, 
and the whole was fown with oats. December following it 
was ploughed. In January the oil-compoft was carried ore 
that part of the field which had not been chalked, and over" 
half an acre of the chalked part; the remainder was.dunged. 
In February it was ploughed; and in March drilled with 
hog-peafe. The chalked part was the bell; the unchalked 
part, where the oil-manure was put, though good, was not 
to compare to the chalked part; and the half-acre chalked 
and oiled appeared no better than the dunged part. 
Dr. Wilkinfon, of Enfield, ufed Dr. Hunter’s oil-com¬ 
poft as a top-dreding in l'pring, on two acres of wheat, 
the foil a pebbly loam on a gravelly fubfoil, very poor, 
and never remembered to have borne a crop of wheat. 
The produce however was nearly three quarters to are 
acre. The ftraw was fhort and light, but the ear was 
full and heavy. The quantity of manure to an acre was 
i2lb. of pot-afh diffolved in four gallons of water, and 
mixed with twenty bufiiels of dry mould, and fourteen 
gallons of train-oil. This gentleman tried the fame quan¬ 
tity of this manure on two acres of turnips; the foil a 
wet loam on a clayey bottom. It was all drefled with 
twelve loads an acre of rotten dung. When the turnips 
were fown, the two acres had an additional covering of 
the bil-manure. The whole crop fuffered from the fly, 
but the part where' the oil had been laid recovered the 
fooneft. The two acres retained their fuperiority, and 
the eye could eafily trace where the oil, had been laid by 
the more luxuriant vegetation. 
A Norfolk gentleman-farmer recommends an oil-com¬ 
poft of materials different from Dr. Hunter’s. Of rape, 
or train-oil, fix gallons. Sea-fand, fix bufhels. Coarfe 
fait, two bufiiels. Malt-coombs, twenty-four bufiiels. 
Spread the coombs on the floor four inches thick ; fprin- 
kle the fait level; throw oil half tlie quantity of land, 
and half the quantity of oil out of a watering-pot; turn 
it and rake it well; add the reft of the fluid and oil; turn 
it well till thoroughly mixed, and then throw it in a 
heap for ufe. The land and fait not only occafion it to 
imbibe the oil more freely, but give it a better body for 
fpreading on the land. 
7 H 
Vegetable 
