$80 
HUSBANDRY. 
and lime perfectly effete or extinguiffied, or chalk, will 
anfwer the-fame purpofe, as it will fupply the defective 
ingredient, and open the texture of the clay; fo alfo fand 
alone, or chalk, - or powdered limeltone, may anfwer, though 
lefs advantageoufly. Lime alone feems lefs proper, as it 
is,apt to cake, and does not fufficiently open the foil. 
Where thefe manures cannot be had, coal-alhes, chips of 
wood, burned clay, brickduft, gravel, or even pebbles, are 
■ufeful ; for all thefe improve the texture, and the former 
fupply alfo the carbonaceous ingredient. Nothing per¬ 
haps is equal to good (table and foldyard-dung for llrong 
tillage-land ; becaufe it opens this heavy foil at the fame 
time that it fupplies the richeft nutriment. But dung is 
a proper ingredient in the appropriated manures of all 
forts of foils, as it fupplies the carbonaceous principle.. 
Clayey-loam is defective either in the calcareous ingre¬ 
dient, or in the Candy, or in both. If in the firft, the pro- • 
per manure is chalk ; if in the lecond, fand ; if in both, 
iiliceous marl, or limeltone, gravel, or effete lime, and 
fand. 
Chalky-foil wants both the clayey, and the (tony, fandy, 
or gravelly, ingredients. The heft manure for it there¬ 
fore is clayey-loam or fandy-loam; hut, when the chalk 
is fo hard as to keep of iti'elf the foil fufficiently open, 
then clay is the heft manure; for in fucli cafes, the coarfe 
fand or gravelly ingredients of loams are no ufe. Some 
indeed think, that pebbles in a field ferve to preferve or 
communicate heat; this ufe however is not fufficiently 
afcertained. They detain.moifture; and thus, on chalk- 
lands, a complete covering of great black flints infures a 
-tolerable crop in a dry feafon. 
Chalky-loam. The heft manure for this foil is clay or 
clay-marl; becaufe it is defective principally in the clayey 
ingredient. Light limeftone-foiis, not differing effentially 
from thefe, require the fame manure. 
Sands. The beft manure for thefe is calcareous marl, 
for they want both clay and calx, and this marl fupplies 
both ; the next beft is clay-marl, and next to thefe clay 
mixed with lime, or calcareous, or clayey, loams. Lime 
or chalk are lefs proper, becaufe they do not give fiiffi- 
cient coherence to the foil; however, when mixed with 
earth or dung, thefe anfwer well, becaufe they form a fort 
of marl or compound comprehending the defective ingre¬ 
dients. 
Sandy-loams are defective chiefly in the calcareous in¬ 
gredient, and in fome degree alfo in the argillaceous; then- 
texture alfo is imperfect, as they abound both in fine and 
coarfe fand ; chalk or lime would fupply the firft defeft, 
but leave the texture unamended. Calcareous or argil¬ 
laceous marls are moll proper. Clay, after land has been 
chalked, anfwers well, becaufe it remedies the texture. 
Gravelly-loam are benefited by the application of marl, 
whether argillaceous or calcareous. If the gravel be cal¬ 
careous, clay may be employed. A mixture of effete lime 
and clay ffiould anfwer in all cafes. 
Ferruginous-loam, or till, and vitriolic, foils , neceffarily re¬ 
quire the calcareous ingredient to neutralize their pec¬ 
cant acid; hence chalk, limeltone, gravel, and calcareous 
marl, are moft advantageoufly applied to them- 
Bogs, or boggy foils, muff be firft drained, and then, the 
nature of the loil being explored, an appropriate manure 
nuill be applied. In general they fliould he burned, and 
then covered with Jimeftone, gravel, or lime mixed with 
coarfe fand or gravel, becaufe they are ufually of a clayey 
nature ; if they are more fandy, lime may anfwer well, or 
calcareous marl. If their upper parts contain a fuffici- 
ency of the carbonaceous principle, as often happens, they 
need not be burned. For all moorilh and cold foils, gra¬ 
vel, road-dirt, fmall (tones, coal-afhes, foaper’s alhes, hog- 
dung, &c. are good. But in cold wet lands, no manure 
can be effectual without draining. 
Heathy-foils fliould firft be burned to deftroy the heath, 
and increafe the carbonaceous principle. Lime alfo will 
4 eftroy heath. Limcftone-gravel is the fitted manure 
when the foil is clayey ; lime when it is gravelly. Gyp- 
fum alfo anfwers remarkably well when the (oil is dry. 
As to the feafon in which,manures may be put into 
the foil, or fpread out upon its furface, with the greateft 
benefit and advantage, thougli in practice it mud, in 
fome meafure, depend on the (late of the land and the 
convenience of the farmer, it fliould, in cafes where they 
are buried in the ground, be as nearly as poffible to the 
periods in which the feeds or the roots, which they are 
defigned to fupport, are fown or placed in the earth; and 
in the latter cafe, or where they are to be laid upon the 
furface of the land, it ought probably to be juft- before 
the crops of grafs, or other vegetables, begin naturally to 
Ip ring or (hoot forth. 
By the practice of depofiting and blending the manure 
with the foil nearly at the time the crops are put in, 
there is fcarcely any walte of the fertilizing properties of 
fuch fubftances, which, as they gradually proceed in 
their decompolition and decay under the ground, muff 
otherwife be the cafe, the roots of the plants not being 
in the moll proper dates for taking them up and con- 
verting'theni to their fupport. Befides, in the (tiff, loamy, 
or clayey, (oils, they have a tendency, as has been re¬ 
marked above, to produce a degree of lightnefs arid fria¬ 
bility that is fuited to the early procefs of vegetation. 
And it is obferved by an able writer, that “the atmof- 
pheric air, which is buried along with the manure in the 
interftices of the earth, and which for many weeks, or 
even months, renders the foil loofe and eafily impreifed 
by the foot on walking on it, gradually evolves, by its 
union with carbon, a genial heat, very friendly to vege¬ 
tation in this climate, as well as the immediate produc¬ 
tion of much fluid carbonic acid, and probably of a fluid 
mixture cf nitrogen with hydrogen, w hich are believed to 
fupply much nutriment to plants.” Darwin's Phytologia, 
p. 251. 
And, by the application of fuch manures as are em¬ 
ployed in the way of top-dreffings in the beginning of 
the fpring, they are laid on i:i the moft favourable period 
for affording their fmtritious principles, and for their be¬ 
ing drunk up by the roots of plants, confequently be¬ 
come ufeful at the time they are moft wanted for the 
promotion of the crops; and the great wafte which mull 
otherwife be caufed, either by the exceffive (alls of rains 
and floods in the winter fealon, waftiing down much of 
the valuable properties into the adjoining rivers and 
ditches, or the evaporation of their more volatile or elaf- 
tic matters by means of the fummer heats, is moft effec¬ 
tually guarded againlt and prevented. 
The practice common in fome places of applying ma¬ 
nure to grafs-lands in the latter end of fummer or begin- 
r • ig of autumn, after the firft crop of hay has been 
taken from the ground and the after-grafs has begun to 
make (hoots, is not by any means fo favourable as that of 
early fpring, as in the latter cafe the generation of thofe 
materials that contribute to the fupport of vegetation is 
greatly promoted by the conftantly-increafing heat of the 
vernal and fummer months; while in the former it is 
conftantly checked and retarded by the recreating cold- 
nefs of the autumn and winter feafons. Befides, the ma¬ 
nure, by being fpread out upon the furface of the land 
under fuch circumftances, mult be the caufe of great lots, 
by contaminating the after-grafs, and rendering it inca¬ 
pable of being eaten off" by cattle or other kinds of live- 
Itock. Where, however, a lecond crop of hay is to be 
taken, it may fometimes be put on at fuch times with ad¬ 
vantage to fuch crop, efpecially if the weather be not too 
hot, and the manure in a perfectly fine and reduced (late. 
Dr. Fenwick, in his very ingenious Reflections on Ma¬ 
nures, has very well obferved, that it is fcarcely poffible 
to fuggeft a worfe mode of uling manures on grafs-lands, 
than that which is almoft univerfally praftifed in the 
neighbourhood in which he refides; and it is the fame in 
many other parts of the country, as is evident from the 
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