581 
H U S B 
Reports that have been lately publiftied Under the autho¬ 
rity of the Board of Agriculture : “ When a levere froft 
has bound up the land in a ftate of impenetrable cohe- 
fion, the fanners,” fays he, “ wheel on their dung, per¬ 
haps even when fnow has covered it. While the froft 
lafts the.land can derive no advantage from the manure, 
and when a thaw fuperVenes it is evident that the wath 
from the melting fnow, or from the rains which generally 
fall in luch weather, mild deprive the mafs of every part 
that is foluble. The ground, in the mean time, retains 
the froft for many days, and is therefore incapable of ab- 
forbing the wet which falls Upon its furface ; and, even 
when the influence of the milder air has reached it, it 
can imbibe but little, being in general previously filled 
with water, and the quantity which flows over it being 
too great for foil under any circumftances to drink up.” 
In & favour of this deftruftive and wafteful practice, 
however much it may have been defended on the ground 
■of the farmer’s leifure or convenience, and the little in¬ 
jury done to the turf or (ward of the land, the fame wri¬ 
ter thinks there can be only one reafon alleged, which is, 
that manure, when fpread early in the winter, may pro¬ 
tect the roots of grafles from the feverity of frofts. This 
too is probably a mjftaken notion, as it is known to 
every one, that the common grafles are feldom injured by 
the ievereft frofts ; and other kinds of grafles may proba¬ 
bly not fuffer lefs injury from the application of manure 
at fuch a feafon, than from the feverity of frofts. On all 
thefe accounts, therefore, farmers ftiould contrive as much 
as poflible to apply the manures, intended as top-dreflings 
to grafs-lands, as early in the fprirtg as it can be conve¬ 
niently done, which may be eafily managed on thofe that 
are dry, and on fuch as are inclined to be wet and 
poachy it may probably be greatly facilitated by having 
l'mall light carts conftrufted for the purpofe, and placed 
on broad cylinders as wheels. 
In the application of manures to lands under tillage, 
as well as thofe in the ftate of grafs, there are a few other 
circumftances that require the attention of cultivators ; 
fuch as the depth they may be depofited in the foil, the 
modes of putting them upon the ground, and the molt 
economical methods of employing them. 
As we have already feen that the putrefaftion and de¬ 
cay of animal and vegetable matters, whether above or 
beneath the ground, is greatly promoted by the free ad- 
miflion of air, and a fuitable degree of moifture, to them, 
it is evident that they ftiould not be buried lb deep in 
the earth, as that they may be prevented, from readily re¬ 
ceiving the aid of fuch caufes in forwarding their decom- 
pofition ; nor, as the procefs is known to be much re¬ 
tarded by the fubftances being rendered too dry, ftiould 
they be placed fo near the furface, or be fo thinly covered, 
as to permit the aftion of the fun and winds, before the 
crops have rifen to fuch heights as to prevent it, from 
diflfpating and carrying away their nutritious properties. 
The introduction.of the manure to a middling depth, as 
three or four inches, would, therefore, on thefe accounts, as 
well as from its contributing more expeditioully and more 
fuily to the vegetation of the crops that may be put in 
with it, feem, in general, to be the moft advantageous 
practice; but, on the lighter and more friable foils, it may 
be advifable to plough it in to a greater depth than on 
fuch as are heavy and tenacious. In every cafe, however, 
whether thfe manure made ufe of be in a long or a more 
reduced ftate, it ftiould be perfe&ly covered or ploughed 
into the earth. The practice of burying manures deep 
in the foil, has been defended by fome on the ground of 
its being the nature of elaftic matters to rife or force 
themfelves towards the furface ; but when they are placed 
to a confiderable depth in the earth, as the procefs of de- 
compofition is thereby flopped, or fufFered to proceed in 
but a very flow and feeble manner, little or nothing 
qfcapes for the fupport of vegetation, or it is furnilhed in 
fo very flow and fparing a way, as to be of fcarcely any 
fervice to the immediate crops. Thus in the cultivation 
VOIi. X. No. 686. 
A N D R Y. 
of fuch crops as are placed in rows or drills, where the 
manure is put in to a great depth, and covered pretty 
thickly with earth, on digging them up at the end of many 
months it may frequently be obferved nearly in the fame 
ftate it was when firft put into the ground. And the lame 
thing is often noticed by gardeners, where imperfeelly- 
reduced or long dung is placed in deep trenches and co¬ 
vered to a confiderable thicknefs'with mould. 
In order that manures may produce their effects in the 
moft perfeCt manner, they ftiould be fpread over the fut- 
faces of the grounds as evenly as poflible, whether they 
be intended to be turned into the foil or left upon its 
furface as top-dreflings. This may be greatly facilitated 
by placing the manures out at firft in very finall heaps, 
as by fircli a practice it may be fpread over the ground 
with much greater eafe and exactnefs; and on grals-lands 
much lefs injury will be done by the bottoms of the 
heaps. 
On tillage-lands, manures ftiould always be turned in, 
or otherwise covered, as foon as poflible after they are 
fpread out ; for, if this be neglected, much lofs may be 
fuftained, efpecially in hot feafons, by the quick evapo¬ 
ration that takes place in fuch cafes.. The beft practice 
is therefore not to carry more out from the dunghill at a 
time than can be conveniently fpread upon and ploughed 
into the earth in a fhort time afterwards. In fpreading 
manures employed as top-dreflings on grafs-lands, much 
advantage will be gained by breaking and reducing the 
clods or lumps into as fine a ftate as poflible, as by fuch 
means they are not only applied more perfectly, but 
wafiied by the rains much more readily to the roots of the 
grafles. The fpringing of the young grades is alfo lefs 
retarded where the manures are rendered fine and pow¬ 
dery, than v/liere they are left in a cloddy ftate. 
Another economical mode of employing manure is, by 
placing it in the drills or hollows formed for the recep¬ 
tion of different crops which are cultivated in rows, as 
peafe, beans, cabbages, potatoes, See. By this method, that 
part of the ground which is intended to bear the crop is 
only manured, the intervals or fpaces between the rows 
not receiving any, from which, where the bufinefs of put¬ 
ting the manure into the drills is properly performed, a 
great faving muft of courfe be made. According to the 
conclufions of a late writer, the faving of manure in this 
way is fo great as to conftitute one of the chief advan¬ 
tages of the drill-fyftem of cultivation. His calculation 
is, that, by “ drills being made two feet afunder, apd 
each drill fix inches wide at the bottom, there will be juft 
one-fourth part of the ground covered with manure ; for 
as fix inches, multiplied by four, gives two feet, which 
will be the diftance from drill to drill, and as four multi¬ 
plied by four makes fixteen, it follows, that if the whole 
of the land had been covered with manure, fixteen loads 
would have been required for what is as fu!ly ; and benefi¬ 
cially performed by four, that is by one quarter of the 
quantity ufed by the old method of drafting, fuppofing it 
of the fame thicknefs and quality. Befides, from the 
manure being in this method kept clofely together, and 
the feeds or plants placed immediately upon it, they muft, 
he fufpefts, receive the advantage of the drafting- in a 
more full and complete manner. Experienced. Farmer, vol. ii. 
As it appears probable that in the decay of different 
materials in the foil, all the nutritious matters as they 
are formed immediately become ufeful for the purpofe of 
vegetation, without any waite being fuftained, as muft 
always be more or lef6 the cafe where they are depofited 
together in heaps, it may be an economical practice, as 
has been already obferved, in cafes where the crops to be 
benefited by them require a regular and Lifting but not 
large fupply of nourifhment, or where the ground is re¬ 
quired to be kept in an open and rather light ftate, foF a 
confiderable length of time, to employ fuch manures in 
their lefs decompofed ftates, as by the ploughing down 
of green fucculent vegetable-crops, and the turning in of 
long ftrawy fubftances. 
7 I By 
