H U S B 
iftat by having fuch earthy or other fubftances as have 
been mentioned above, or as could be conveniently pro¬ 
cured in fuch large cities or towns, fuch as the long lit¬ 
tery dung from livery-ftables, lime-rubbiih from the pull¬ 
ing down of old houfes, and the frefh earth dug up in 
preparing the foundations for new ones, mixed and 
blended with it in the pits or refervoirs, for fotne time 
before they are cleaned out; the difficulties attending the 
carriage of it might not only, in a great meafure, be ob¬ 
viated', but the difagreeable l'mell iffuing from it be much 
correfted, and the quantity of manure greatly augmented. 
By forne method of this nature, under the management 
and direction of proper perfons, vaft ftores of fertility 
might be provided in fuch places for the neighbouring 
diitriCts, which inattention or popular prejudice at pre- 
lent withhold from the ufes of agriculture. 
In the vicinity of the fea, where fhell and other fmail 
fillies can frequently be procured in large quantities, by 
having them well mixed and incorporated with good fur- 
face-mould, peat-earth, or other fimilar matters, a vaft 
increafe of good manure may alfo be produced. In fuch 
fituations too, the weeds cut from the fides of the rocks, 
or which are thrown up by the tides, when collected into 
heaps, and mixed with fmail proportions of lime and fuit- 
able quantities of mould or earth, may contribute greatly 
to the increafe of the compoft-heaps on the farms. 
It is obferved by Mr. Anderfon, in fpeaking of calca¬ 
reous fubftances, that the recent fliells obtained from fiffi- 
ing-towns operate much more powerfully as an animal 
manure than as a calcareous matter, when firft applied ; 
and that it is not impoffible but that man may, in time, 
fall upon lome contrivance for obtaining this animal cal¬ 
careous manure in much greater abundance and perfec¬ 
tion than it has hitherto been obtained. “There is,” 
fays he, “ a fmail fpecies of frefh-water wilk, which in- 
creafes fo fait, as in a furprifingly ftiort time to fill a con- 
fiderable fpace with folid wilks, if a few of them have been 
placed in a proper receptacle for that purpofe, and water 
duly adminiftered to them. If then ponds were prepared 
for this purpofe, and properly ftocked with this animal, 
and if they were allowed to increafe till a bed of them of 
confiderable thicknefs was accumulated, might they not 
then,” fays he, “ be taken out in abundance to be em¬ 
ployed as a manure ? Thefe, if bruifed under a ftone 
like a tanner’s-wheel, to reduce the fhell to fmail frag¬ 
ments, would certainly,” he fays, “ form as rich - and ef¬ 
ficacious a manure as could poifibly be devifed ; nor could 
there be any difficulty in difpofing the ponds in fuch a 
manner as to afford a conftant annual fupply.” EJfays, 
vol. i. p. 569. 
The vegetable mould -or other materials contained in 
the bottoms of ditches, and in boggy hollow places, where 
water frequently ftagnates, and large crops of aquatic or 
other plants alternately vegetate and decay, may likewife 
be dug up and applied with benefit to loils for which they 
are proper, either in the ftate in which they are found, 
or after they have been formed into compofts with dung, 
lime, or fome other fubftance of a fimilar kind. 
Clay may alfo be employed with great -advantage on 
fandy foils, and fave other more valuable manures ; it 
feetns, however, to be the moftlerviceable for this purpofe 
after it has been imperfeCtly burnt in clamps or kilns, 
probably from the proportion of oxygen or pure air that 
is thus combined with it, or with the metallic matters 
which it contains. 
In lliort, it is neceffitry, in order to increafe the ftock 
of manures on farms to the greateft poffible extent, to be 
careful that none of fuch animal or vegetable fubftances 
as are capable of being converted into manure be thrown 
away or confirmed by fire, but that they be all conveyed 
to the dungfteads in the farm-yards or other places, or 
laid in heaps of themfelves, and fuffered to pals into fer¬ 
mentation, by which they may be fpeedily reduced to 
manure. Where the matter thus made ufe of chiefly 
confifts of weeds and the Items or roots of coarl'e plants, 
Vol. X. No. 686. 
A N D R Y. 58S 
fuch as peafe, beans, cabbages,- docks, nettles, Sec. their 
decay may be greatly promoted by a little quicklime be¬ 
ing blended with them. Such heaps fliould alfo be co¬ 
vered over pretty well with fome of thole earthy matters- 
that have been fo frequently mentioned. 
As we have feen that the different materials which arc 
made ufe of for the purpofe of manure pal's through dif¬ 
ferent ftages of decompofition and decay, in each of 
which fuch matters of the folid or fluid kinds are formed 
as are capable of contributing to the nutrition and lup- 
port of vegetable crops, but which are liable to be diffi- 
pated or carried away by the agency of various caufes, it 
may be neceffary to guard .againft fuch walte by keeping 
the dung-heaps covered, in every iituation, as much as 
poffible, with earth or foil, both in the early periods in 
which heat is evolved, and at the later ones, when am¬ 
monia or volatile alkali is formed; as by fuch management 
the proceffes of decompofition, when too rapid, may be 
reftrained, and the elaftic matters that are gradually fet 
at liberty be abforbed by thefe coverings, while the more 
fluid ones are detained by the earthy bottoms on which 
they had been placed, and thus the whole of the valuable 
properties of the manure be preferved. 
Water may fairly be confidered as a manure, if we at¬ 
tend to the effeCts of ftagnant and putrid water, and the 
watering of meadow-lands. Water, if allowed to remain 
ftagnant is difpoled to putrefy, from the animal or vege¬ 
table matters contained in it; and, when it has undergone 
a putrefaction, it depofits a mucilaginous fubftance. Wa¬ 
ter therefore may be rendered an excellent manure, by¬ 
making a pond or refervoir near a houfe and farm-yard 
the common receptacle of the drains from the kitchen, 
fcullery, and wafh-houfe, or of the yard, ftables, &c. or 
elfe by throwing into it weeds, and all offal of the garden. 
By either of thefe means there may always be a large fup¬ 
ply of putrid water, with which, particularly in dry fea- 
fons, meadow and paftureland may be watered with great 
effeCt, by means or water-carts, fuch as are uled on the 
roads near London. 
The water in which flax or hemp is lteeped might be 
ufed advantageoufly in the fame manner ; and in general, 
where there are any pits or pools, the water might foon 
be rendered putrid and fit for manuring pafture or even 
arable lands, by throwing into them a large quantity of 
green vegetable fubftances. In Devonfhire it is a prac¬ 
tice to enrich ponds by the drain of an adjoining yard, 
with the,addition of a bag of lime at different times. 
Watering of meadows is a molt important improvement, 
where it can be accomplifhed, and is well underltood. A 
well-watered meadow is in fpring a hot-bed for grafs. 
The practice of this valuable improvement may be learnt 
from Mr. Davis’s Agricultural Survey of Wiltlhire. 
The preceding feCtion on Manures is compiled from the 
General Report from the Board of Agriculture on the 
fubject of Manures ; together with Dr. Dickfon’s Practi¬ 
cal Hufbandry ; Dr. Hunter’s Georgical Eflays ; Arthur 
Young’s Annals of Agriculture; Marfliall’s Rural Eco¬ 
nomy of Norfolk, the Midland Counties, Sec. the Papers 
of the Bath Agricultural Society ; the Surveys of Coun¬ 
ties, printed by direction of the Board of Agriculture; 
the TranfaCtions of the Society of Arts; Darwin’s Phytolo- 
gia; Earl of Dundonald on the Connection of Agriculture 
with Chemiftry ; Anderfon’s Eflays ; many papers in the 
Philofophical TranfaCtions, Sec. See. 
Of the IMPROVED UTENSILS in HUSBANDRY. 
The avidity with which aicultural experiments have 
of late been jaurfued, and the alacrity with which country 
gentlemen have entered upon farming fpeculations, have 
given rife to a great number of new utenfils, as well -as 
to confiderable improvements of the old. But the young 
farmer is not to imagine that many of thefe are calculated 
for his purpofe, being in general adapted fo particular 
foils, or to fome peculiar or favourite objeCl of the pro¬ 
jector. In all thefe cafes fuch implements can only he 
7 K partially 
