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be eaten upon the ground by sheep; after which sow grass-seeds, with either barley or oats, and pasture these with sheep. If the land is broken up again in two or three years, a crop of oats may be taken, and the straw converted into manure, and applied to the ground preparatory to a green crop. This process will generally serve to put the land into good condition, as well as prove remunerating to the farmer.

MANURES.

Our fields might be kept in a constant state of fertility, by replacing every year as much as we remove from them in the form of produce; but by repeated cropping, the best soils will become exhausted, and require the application of manure, before they will yield a return to the labours of the husbandman.

Manures are of two classes,-putrescent, and fossil or calcareous. The first, consisting of animal and vegetable decomposing matter, is chiefly beneficial in feeding the plant; the other operates chiefly as a stimulant upon the soil. The first kind includes every description of animal and vegetable manure, and in the second class are ranked lime, marl, gypsum, sea-sand, and clay.

Animal and vegetable manures are putrescent in their nature, and consist of certain elementary parts of animal and vegetable substances. Every constituent of the body of man and animals is derived from plants, and the dung of all animals is no other than the remains of the vegetable or animal food which has been received into the stomach.

From the constant decay of organized matter, and its conversion into fluids and gases, it may be inferred that animal and vegetable substances, and excrementitious matter, are only different modifications of the same original principles. The active elements of them all are hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, in some cases united with nitrogen. Conveyed by liquids or moist substances into the ground, these agents act as a nourishment to plants, and so form the principles of a new

vegetation. As flesh consists of a greater concentration of these elements than vegetables, the manure produced by carnivorous animals (man included) is more powerful in proportion to its bulk, than that of animals which live upon herbage alone.

The value of urine as a manure has long been known to farmers on the Continent, and especially in Switzerland and Flanders, where it is collected with the greatest care; and the Chinese, who are the oldest agricultural people we know, set so high a value upon human excrement for the purpose of manure, that laws are made to regulate its collection, and prevent its being thrown away. One quart of the urine of a man is considered equal in its fertilizing qualities, to six quarts of the urine of a cow, and to thirteen quarts of that of a horse. It hence appears how important it is to agriculture, that human urine should not be lost. For the most part only the solid excrements are used as manure in this country, but these contain the insoluble matters, whilst the urine contains the soluble salts and phosphates which existed in the plants at the time they were consumed by the animals, and which are necessary to vegetation.

Neither animal nor vegetable manures are practically of any use, until the active agents which they contain are disengaged by putrefaction. If the animal or vegetable substance does not decay or putrefy, it is of no more use than a stone. A piece of peat, for instance, is an inert vegetable mass, preserved from putrefaction by water, and certain antiseptic qualities in its substance. In this condition, it is valueless as a manure; but when we expose it to the atmosphere, and thus bring on decomposition, its character is changed, and we have a highly nutritious manure.

In the process of putrefaction, the elementary particles are set at liberty, in a fluid or volatile state. If stable dung be piled into a heap, and exposed to the weather, it soon becomes heated, and emits a vapour, composed of the escaping gases. The heap is seen constantly diminishing in weight and bulk; and at the end of six months, if there have been alternate

moisture and warmth, not above a fourth of the original matter will remain to be spread on the field;-the real manure is gone, and what remains is little better than a mass of rubbish.

No subject connected with agriculture is more important, or so little understood and attended to, as that of manure. Generally speaking, the excrementitious matters are thrown on the dunghill, and left to the effects of exposure and drainage. This is a gross abuse in farming, which cannot be too speedily remedied. The putrescent steam which escapes as fermentation advances, contains the very essence of the manure, and should either be confined with the dung, or be conveyed to fresh vegetable or earthy matter, to impart to it its nutritive qualities. The attention of the farmer cannot be too carefully bestowed upon the means of preventing, as far as possible, the loss by evaporation of these active and most useful particles of his manure.

The earth readily absorbs all the gases which arise from putrefaction. A strongly-dunged field, after being ploughed and harrowed, sends forth a healthful and refreshing smell-a proof that all the putrid vapours are absorbed, for the nutrition of the crop. The poorest earth may be enriched in a high degree, by mere exposure to the gases generated by putrefaction. Put a layer of common earth, twelve or eighteen inches thick, on the top of a fermenting dung-heap, and allow it to remain there while the fermenting process is actively going on when afterwards removed from the heap, you will find that the earth has become impregnated with the fertilizing qualities of the dung.

A knowledge of this important truth has led to the practice of making compost dung-heaps, in which the valuable liquids and gases of different kinds of manure are absorbed by earth, sand, ashes, peat-mould, and other substances, and the whole is thereby brought into the condition of an active and highly valuable manure for the land.

Hitherto, it has been customary to speak of dungheaps or dunghills, but there ought to be no such

thing as a dunghill. The manure from the farm-yard and offices should be collected into a dung-pit; and the manner of managing the contents of this pit, is well worthy of the farmer's best attention. Nothing can be worse than the practice now usually pursued in this respect. The dunghill is generally raised like a mound, so that all the moisture flows away; and fertilizing matter of every kind may be seen running to waste, instead of being kept together in a proper receptacle, to enrich the land.

One of the first objects should be, to form a proper receptacle for the manure, and refuse and drainings of every sort, from the house, stable, pigsty, and yard. It should be made deep and large enough to contain all the moisture arising from the manure, or that may drain into it from the cow-house and stables, &c. The bottom must be puddled with clay, or earth beaten or trodden down very hard, to retain every drop of this moisture, and it should also be paved with stone. The influx of too much surface-water ought likewise to be prevented.

A layer, about six inches in depth, of turf-mould, clay, earth, sand, or ashes, should be first placed in the bottom, and above it the stable and yard dung. To that should be added refuse vegetables from the house, road-scrapings, ditch-scourings, sea-weed (if it can be obtained), entrails and bones of fish, all dead animals, cow and horse dung collected from the roads and fields, potato-stalks, and weeds and rubbish of all kinds from the garden. These would form valuable additions to the dung-pit, which ought to have layers of soil added to it from time to time to absorb the moisture, and prevent loss by evaporation : but the pit should be so formed, that the manure may never rise more than a foot or two above the top, else some of the juices may run off and be wasted.

If the manure appear rich, layers of earth, turfmould, ashes, clay, &c. may continue to be added, as at first, care being taken that none of the moisture is allowed to escape or be lost. Should any flow over, it must be collected in another pit, formed close to

the first, and at a somewhat lower level; whence the liquid may be taken up, and again poured over the dung, or else be applied at once to the manuring of the land, as may be deemed expedient. Every drop of this draining is valuable, and no part of it should be allowed to run to waste.

In large farms, where many cows and other cattle are kept, a mere pit, of the kind above described, will not be sufficient for the manure which will be made; but the same principle should be applied, and the juices be preserved, and loss by evaporation as far as possible be prevented. The dung-yard should be hollowed out in the centre, as deep as it can be done conveniently, and be puddled and paved at bottom to retain the moisture; and tanks or reservoirs should be formed, into which the urine of the cattle may drain and be preserved for

use.

In the best farming establishments, the liquid manure is thus collected and retained in tanks, and then pumped out into large casks and carted to the fields which most require it. In Switzerland, all the urine and dirty water of the household, of every kind, is carefully kept in tubs by the farmers, and carried to the compost heaps, or to the fields, as they find necessary; and in China the utmost attention is paid to such matters, and we are told that the very soapsuds used in shaving, are there taken care of and sold for

manure.

No farmer, great or small, ought to be without a tank or receptacle for liquid manure, which is especially profitable for grass land, and always increases the crop of hay. In Holland, immense crops of rape are raised from land chiefly manured with the urine of cattle, with rape-cake dissolved in it: tanks are constructed under their stables and cow-houses for receiving it, and it is more highly esteemed for the light lands than any other kind of manure. A barrel or large tub, sunk in the ground, will for a time, and as a makeshift, serve the purpose of a tank; and as the vessel becomes full, its contents may either be thrown over the manure, or mixed up with earth,

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