328 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 30. 
vol. i., pp. 141, 150; vol. iii., p. 39 ; and, again, in 1804, ib. 
vol. iv., p. 340). Mr. Pusey’s conclusions are sound and 
practical, and with him we trust that, our better acquaintance 
with nitric acid will not be limited to the. theory of agricul¬ 
ture, or remain a dead letter, without effect on our practice, 
for we now know with certainty the efficacy of the nitrates. 
But one great chemical problem of agriculture is the pre¬ 
vention of waste in dung-making; yet the attempts to fix 
the ammonia of dung have not been very happy. While 
some methods have not fixed it at all, others have cost in 
fixing it more than the result, if attained, would be worth. 
The favourite proposal has been the formation of sulphate 
of ammonia, which, under ordinary circumstances, is a fixed 
salt. But an experiment made last spring, on his farm, 
with sulphate of ammonia, against nitrate of soda, showed 
how little we can depend on the fixity so dearly obtained. 
This result has been cleared up, however, by Dr. Voelcker,who 
informs us that sulphate, of ammonia had equally failed on 
the Cirencester farm; that he had often remarked a pungent 
odour on the land where it was used, and has little doubt 
that this salt, however carefully fixed, had been decomposed 
again and dissipated by the natural lime of the soil. Great 
fault, too, has been found with our ordinary mode of making 
dung by laying it up in heaps. It has been said, that when 
first put together, these heaps show the presence of ammonia 
by the pungent smell that escapes from them, but that after 
a few months their scentless state proves them to have 
become little better than dead woody fibre. Still it was 
clear that this apparently inert matter, though it gave forth 
no odours, had a powerful effect upon the farmer’s crops, 
and I have long suspected, adds Mr. Pusey, that dunghills 
might contain nitre. Mr. Nesbit informs me, that by 
analysis he has repeatedly found nitrates in ripened dung. 
The alkali required might be furnished by the potash of 
the decayed straw. But he has also found, what is a very 
curious chemical fact, that whereas, for forming a salt, 
some alkali or other is requited to combine with the acid; 
and whereas further, nitrogen, when liberated from decom¬ 
posing matter, may become either nitric acid or ammonia, 
which is an alkali, both nitric acid and ammonia are in fact 
sometimes formed in fermenting manure at the same time, 
for the very purpose, as it were, of combination; for Mr. 
Nesbit finds nitrate of ammonia in dung heaps. Again, no 
farming practice has been more decidedly blamed than the 
west country method of mixing lime with the dung-hill, 
because lime decomposes salts of ammonia. It was for¬ 
gotten, however, that in fresh dung the ammonia is nut. yet 
formed , while the undeveloped nitrogenous matter contained 
in the dung may be most effectually fixed by the lime—may 
become nitrified through the mixture, exactly as in the 
French nitre-beds, by which saltpetre was produced during 
the late war for the manufacture of gunpowder. So cautious 
must we be in drawing chemical inferences for farmers 
without careful and direct experiment. 
“In some experiments of Lord Kinnaird on the action upon 
potatoes of farm-yard dung prepared in covered and un¬ 
covered yards, and upon the following crop of wheat, this 
last receiving in the spring a top-dressing of 3 cwt. of 
Peruvian guano per acre, one acre of each produced 
potatoes in tons, cwt., and lbs.; wheat in bushels and lbs.; 
and straw in stones of 22 lbs. {Jour. It. A. 8., vol. xiv., 
p. 337.)— 
Covered dung. Uncovered dung. 
Potatoes . 11 17 50 . 7 0 8 
„ . 11 12 26 . 7 18 99 
Wheat . 55 5 . 41 19 
„ . 53 47 . 42 33 
Straw. 220 . 152 
„ . 210 . 160 
“ Dr. Anderson has given the weight in pounds and money 
value of the fertilising substances contained in 100,000 gal 
Ions of the sewage of Edinburgh, just as it flows upon 
the irrigated meadows of Lochend {Trans. H. S., 1853, 
p. 281)- 
Aramonia. 11.0.5s. fid. 
Potash . 4.1 . 0 9 
Phosphoric acid . 8.8 . 1 1 
Total . 23.9 . 7s. 4d. 
Upon the whole, he very justly concludes that more than 
one-sixth of the whole value of sewage is contained in its 
insoluble portion—the other five-sixths remaining in solution. 
And it is, therefore, obvious, that unless the plans by which 
the sewerage water is to be rendered available make use of 
that part which exists in solution, they must be of little 
value. Mr. J. L. Morton, in his prize essay on the saving 
and application of liquid-manure, has given, amid a great 
mass of other valuable details, an estimate of the expense 
likely to be incurred in carrying the irrigating system into 
operation upon a farm of 200 acres, having the steading 
in a central position, and the fields of a moderate size. 
From this we learn that the expense will be about .f 5 per 
acre {Tr. II. S., 1854, p. 141) {post, p. 43).” 
Pursuing our notes on the characteristics of excellence 
in various Fowls, we next come to the Spanish. They 
are:— 
Black. 
White. 
Blue, or Andalusian. 
Black. — Plumage, in both sexes, uniform glossy 
black, reflecting rich green and purple tints ; tail ample 
—well siekled in the cock, and square in the hen. 
Form: Comb of the cock single, largely developed, 
serrated, and erect; that of the hen large, but pendant. 
Face and ear-lobes, in both- sexes, white, with the 
wattles of unusual size, and of a brilliant scarlet. 
Although theso birds, as compared with the close-made 
Dorking, would be considered tall, and of erect carriage. 
“ legginess” is a fault that breeders must be careful to 
avoid. The breast is prominent, and the body narrows 
rapidly towards the tail; legs clean, and dark slate- 
coloured. 
Weight of the adult cock not under f)^lbs., nor of the 
hen less than -litbs. 
A more compactly-formed black fowl, resembling the 
Spanish in its general features, but lacking the white 
face (the ear-lobe only being of that colour), and exhibit¬ 
ing even larger proportions of the comb, is termed the 
Minorca in the West of England. Ancona, another 
provincial term, is applied to the black and white 
mottled birds of the same general character. 
I Vhite .—Whatever their origin, the “ White Spanish,” 
possessing as they do every indication of common blood, 
should appear in the exhibition-room side by side with 
their black relatives. At any rate, their claims to this 
position are fully as good as those of the White Shang- 
haes and the White Polish. 
Plumago: uniformly white. 
Form, features, and size, as in the black birds. 
The absence of the effective contrast of colour caused 
by the comb, face, and plumage of the Black Spanish, 
renders these white birds far less striking in their 
appearance. 
Blue, or Andalusian .— Plumage: bluish-grey, with 
glossy black hackle and tail. 
The white face is here rarely seen in perfection, 
while many specimens may be found of weights exceed¬ 
ing the usual Spanish average. As with the White 
variety, the proper place for the Andalusian is in the 
Spanish class. 
The white face should always extend well around the 
