practice, by a succession of superior crops, and the example of his more intelligent neighbours. Mr. Rogers, of Ardley, in Essex, has found long dung preferable to short, not only for corn but for turnips and potatoes, and a considerable number of the best agriculturalists in Norfolk, have adduced their experience in favour of the practice. Mr. England, Mr. Reeve, Mr. Dursgate, and several others, however, have relinquished the practice of using long dung, from a conviction that rotten is preferable in almost every respect. With regard to the nature of dung, all organized bodies are resolvable into hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, phosphorus, and sulphur, and the mixture of animal and vegetable matter, which is called dung, contains all these. The grand property of dung is to yield immediate food to plants; it opens the soil, if strong; it attracts moisture, and by the fermentation which it excites in the soil produces the decomposition of whatever vegetable particles may be already in the land; its effects have powerful progressive influences to produce a great crop of leaf, root, and stalk, and by its shade and fermentation, leaves the land in better order for succeeding crops. The circumstances to be attended to in the collecting yard and stable dung in receptacles are few, but very important; the most material is the spreading over the yard a layer of earth or peat, to receive the moisture from the dung, and prevent its being wasted. This manure requires no preparation; no stirring, mixing, or turning, but if the weather should occasion too much fermentation, it may be advantageous to scatter a quantity of

the same earth over the surface, as was made use of for the under-layer. As to the state in which it is to be applied, upon the principles detailed above, it is to be carried to the land as soon as circumstances of crops and convenience will permit. The application deserves attention, for all dung should be applied to hoeing crops, to layers, or to grass lands, and never to white corn; but this is more essential with fresh long dung than with that which is short, for there will be many more seeds of weeds remaining in it, which have not been destroyed by fermentation, and would consequently grow, and render the land foul. If the dung is turned in for any crop so early, that more tillage is to be given before sowing or planting, it should be ploughed in deep enough for the successive operations, not to bring it nearer the surface; for all animal and vegetable manures have a constant tendency to rise, as fossil ones have to sink. The right quantity of dung must be found by experi ment; but if it has been found to answer on any soil in a particular proportion, that proportion may be retained. And as it is generally allowed that dung divides and loosens the constituent parts of the soil, by fermentation, it is applicable to all; but it must necessarily have a more desirable effect on soils too compact, than on others already too light.

The SHEEP FOLD is a method of manuring which is universally known. The immediate application of dung and urine to all soils, and of treading to loose ones, is too generally practised to need recommendation. This circumstance may, perhaps, tend to elucidate the pro

priety

priety of using yard dung, while it retains the greatest quantity of these valuable materials.

PIGEON'S DUNG is esteemed a very hot and powerful manure, and usually applied by measure; the common quantity is from forty to fifty bushels to the acre. No other kind of dung would produce the same effect, for no other kind contains an equal abundance of vola. tile salts.

POND and RIVER MUD are extremely uncertain in their effects. In several experiments the benefit has been extremely great, in others but little good has resulted from it. These different effects are easily reconciled; for, in proportion as the water is resorted to by cattle, wildfowl, &c. or receives the drainings of yards or towns, in that degree will the mud be good, and display its virtues.

SEA WEEDS are used with uniform success whenever they can be obtained. In different parts of the coast, however, they have been found to produce fertility for very different periods.

POND and RIVER WEEDS may be used with success before the last ploughing for turnips, and spreading them as a manure for that crop. Mr. Coke clears the lake at Hol comb every year for this purpose. Mr. Wagstaff values them load for load as dung.

HEMP and FLAX WATER makes the grass grow doubly, where it is used as a manure in Yorkshire, which shews that all the putrid water of the pits should be used as manure. Mr. Billingsley carted flax water on his grass lands, and found the effect superior to that of uşine.

BURNT VEGETABLES have a near resemblance to the ashes produced

by paring and burning, in their nature, property, and effects. A practice prevails in part of Lin. colnshire, of burning straw upon turnip land, just before sowing: from three to five tons to an acre are laid on, and evenly spread, and then set fire to; and it has been found superior to common dung.

PLOUGHING IN GREEN CROPS is mode of husbandry which has bee long practised with satisfaction is this kingdom, and is common in many others. The practice keeps its ground, though the success be not uniform. If growing vegetables turned down prove good manure, it can only be from their fermentation converting them into the food of plants. Care should be taken that they be completely buried, as the effect depends much on the execu tion. Ploughing in green crops answers better for a summer crop, as turnips or tares, than for autumnal or spring crops.

The second class of manures, or those which are usually purchased, the author divides into animal, ve getable, and fossil; and as this subdivision is not merely imaginary the several substances are noticed their respective orders, with obser vations common to each kind.

NIGHT SOIL is to be had in quantities only in the neighbourhood of cities. In such situations it is largely used, and much experience has arisen from the application.

he common quantity for an acre is two hundred bushels. It is the best of all manures, and, if dry, the cheapest: it does well on all soil and for all crops. It has been drilled along with rape-cake dest with much benefit, by Mr. Coke at

Holkham.

BONES are used to a considerable

extent about London; about five or six loads to the acre, which contain on an average 250 bushels. They are most beneficial on strong soils, and their duration exceeds that of any other manure. The effects have been visible for more than thirty years. The dust and refuse of bone manufactories is also a valuable manure, particularly for drilling.

SHEEP'S TROTTERS are a powerful manure, and usually sold by the quarter, with felt-mongers' cuttings; they are commonly applied in the proportion of four or five quarters to the acre, but eight are sometimes used. They should be ploughed in not less than six or eight inches deep, to prevent the attraction of vermin and dogs.

HAIR of hogs is sometimes sold in great cities, and from sixteen to twenty bushels is the quantity usually applied to an acre.

FEATHERS are found to be a powerful manure, and twenty five bushels an acre have been spread with much succoss; ten bushels to an acre yielded a produce of fortyeight bushels of white wheat, while the same quantity unmanured produced only twenty-eight bushels.

FISI of all kinds is one of the most effective manures that can be carried into our fields. The whale blubber offal never fails of pro ducing great crops wherever it is applied; pilchards and herrings produce the same effect. In Dorsetshire Mr. Davis spread them fresh at one shilling per load, and ploughed them in for wheat with much benefit, but they are usually applied mixed with salt. In the fens the small fish called sticklebacks are obtained out of the rivers, and applied to this purpose.

GRAVES, or tallow-chandlers' refuse, is purchased for manure, and from ten to fifteen hundred weight are commonly spread upon an acre. The effects from them on poor sandy soils, are very great in turnip crops.

WOOLLEN RAGS, chopped in small pieces, are frequently applied as manure, from ten to fifteen hundred weight to the acre. It has been noticed in Hertfordshire, that they are most beneficial on dry – and sandy soils. They become the food of plants in common with all other animal substances, and also attract and retain much moisture from the atmosphere.

CURRIERS' SHAVINGS, and fur. riers' clippings, are bought in London and other populons places. When corn sells high they are eagerly sought for; for, though they are an expensive, yet they are a bene ficial manure, but do best on dry soils.

HORN SHAVINGS are also bought, and applied at about thirty bushels to the acre; they are applicable to all soils, but succeed best on all in wet seasons.

These manures are all animal substances, and their nature and properties are in all resolvable into the same parts as yard and stable dung; they contain the principles which by every consistent theory of vegetation are necessary to the food of plants, and the practice of the farmer is in perfect unison with the theory of the chemist; for every husbandman knows, or ought to know, that every animal matter whatever, will fertilize his fields. The only question of preparation which can arise, is whether these sub-tances should be immediately applied to the soil, or prepared by

fermen.

fermentation in a dunghill; and the common practice is to make the application of them to the soil in the state in which they are purchased. The season must be determined by the opportunity of purchase, and the quantity has been remarked under each article; and as to soil, all animal substances act as manures powerfully on all.

WOOD ASHES were found to be a manure, in consequence of some experiments undertaken to disprove a suggestion of Mr. Hazentratz, who thought that all alkalis were not manures. The nature of them is well known, and wherever they have been tried they have proved a valuable manure. Their property is to attract carbonic acid from the air; they are applied without preparation, and the spring is the proper season; and forty bushels to the acre is the common quantity on all soils.

PEAT ASHES are a common manure in all countries where peatbogs are found; their value usually depends on the blackness and density of the peat, and the neighbour. hood of Newbury, in Berkshire, supplies the best: the usual quantity of these is ten or twelve bushels to the acre, but of other kinds from twenty to forty bushels have been used; their effect is greatest on dry friable soils.

COAL ASHES are used all over the kingdom, from fifty to two hundred bushels to an acre; they are most effective when spread on clover, sainfoin, or other seeds, in the spring, and are beneficial on grass lands and green wheat. The effect on them is considerable on the dry chalk lands of Hertfordshire. The knowledge of their properties is very imperfect.

Soor is composed of oil, volatile alkali, carbon, and earth; no won. der, therefore, that it should be found a very powerful manure. Its component parts are so minute, that they may be washed into the ground by a single shower, and become the immediate food of plants. Twenty bushels to the acre is the most common quantity, and the season of application is the spring. Green wheat and clover are much benefited by this manure, the effect of which is great on most soils, but least upon strong or wet clay.

PEAT DUST, if the peat be black and solid, is resolvable inte a greater proportion of hydrogen gas than most other manures; it is also strongly attractive of humidity, which renders it very advantageous on dry sandy soils. The use of it as a manure is not general, but it is well-known, and much esteemed, in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

POTASH WASTE is a powerful manure; and ten loads, or 350 bushels, are commonly applied to an acre. Much good is produced by it or low meadows, and in general or all grass lands.

SUGAR-BAKERS' WASTE is supposed to be a powerful manure, but its effects are not known from expe riment; it can be procured only s five or six places in the kingdom.

TANNERS' BARK, if useful any. where, ought to be so on calcareous soils; mixed with lime it has been beneficial. But as the tanning principle is in all cases hostile to vegetation, whatever benefit is derived from tanners' bark, must arise either from the lime or the animal impregnation. Experiment do not recommend it.

MALT DUST has been used with success wherever it has been.ap.

plled. Particular experiments have proved its value, if laid on from fifty to sixty bushels to the acre. It gives great improvement to cold grass Bands, and is consistent with all kinds of soil.

RAPE CAKE has been in common use in Norfolk for more than half a century, and the quantity was usually half a ton to the acre; an advance of price has, however, now compelled the agriculturalist to lessen the quantity, and Mr. Coke makes a ton do for five or six acres by drilling it with turnip seed. When ploughed in with wheat, it has been found more forcing to the crop than either dung or fold; but the turnips after the wheat have not been so good as after those manures. Malt dust and soot were found equal for wheat, but rape dust better than either. The operation of this manure is assignable to a very obvious theory; for all oleaginous bodies abound greatly with hydrogen and carbon, and their utility consequently must be great.

These manures are all vegetable substances, and their nature and properties do not differ from the vegetable substances in the first class; the most beneficial quantity has been mentioned under each.

Among fossil manares coal ashes might have been classed, but for obvious reasons they are mentioned with other ashes; lime has also been treated of in the first part of the essay; there only then remain to be noticed, salt and gypsum.

SALT, by various experiments, and by observations made apparently with care, has been decided to act as a manure in some cases, to a degree which proves its excellence, hen properly applied, but other

2

persons have reported unfavourably of it. The knowledge of this manure is yet in its infancy, but experiments have generally shewn it to be beneficial, but more especially when added to any dung or dunghills; and it probably acts as an assistant to putrefaction.

GYPSUM is scarcely known at all as a manure: the reports of those who have made experiments with it, are very contradictory. In this state of our knowledge both of this and the preceding article, it is wise to accept the favourable reports, and attribute the failures to soil, season, or some unrelated circumstance. The quantity of gypsum usually applied has been about six bushels to the acre.

Experiments on mixtures, or COMPOSTS, are extremely difficult, and must be ever unsatisfactory. If composts be resorted to to promote putrefaction, that is inconsistent with the idea that putrefaction should be retarded till the manure be applied to the land; they may be useful to get rid of an evil, as to mix pot-ash, or lime, or chalk, with pond mud to destroy its sterility; but here seems to end the benefit of composts.

THE FOOD OF PLANTS deserves much consideration in the application of manures. From experi

ments extremely numerous, and observations made by eminent chemists, it appears that the two substances which play the greatest part in vegetation, are hydrogen and carbon (the presence of light and heat is always to be supposed): those manures then, which supply the greatest proportion of these, must be most beneficial in promoting vegetation. Theory has

furnished