No. XVII. Manures. Dung well the stiff and stony soil, are THE manures with which you are concerned dung, lime, white and blue marl, ashes, sea-weed and seasand. I shall abridge, correct and simplify for you all that the best farming books, communicate about these manures. Dung is the chief of all manures, because a large quantity of it may be collected in every farm, and because it makes the quickest return. The dung of animals that chew the cud being more thoroughly putrefied than that of others, may be at once mixed with the soil, without being collected into a dunghill. A horse does not chew the cud, and in horse dung may be seen hay, straw, and oats, broken into small parts, but not dissolved; it is therefore proper to mix it in a dunghill with clay, or any other cool substance, that it may completely putrefy. If left in a heap by itself (even for a few days) at a stable door, it will singe, being so hot in its nature. The difference between the dung of a horse and that of a horned animal or sheep, is visible in a pasture field; the grass round the former is withered-round the latter it is ranker and greener than in the rest of the field. A mixture of dry and moist stuff ought to be studied, because the former drawing moisture from the latter; they become equally moist.-Stable dung, therefore, should be carefully spread on the dunghill with other matter, in order that fermentation and putrefaction may go on equally; but it is a mistake to allow too much fermentation, which causes a great loss of fluid, and of other matter which is useful to the nourishment of plants, of which some kinds (potatoes for instance) thrive better with fresh dung-clayey soils too, which retain moisture, may receive dung less decomposed-but all the small seeded plants, such as turnips, clover, carrots, &c., which are very tender in the early stage of their growth, require to be pushed forward with the least possible delay by means of short, rotten dung. The time for manuring a field with dung is in its highest state of pulverization, immediately before setting cabbages, sowing turnips, wheat, &c., and dung should be spread and ploughed into the ground without delay, lest its rich juices should be exhaled by the sun: if applied as top dressing to meadows, dung should be put out on the appearance of rain, which will wash the juices into the ground. There is a common practice of drawing out dung in or before winter, leaving it exposed, in a loose, scattered, state, to frost and snow. By this the whole spirit of the dung is washed away by rain, and what is left becomes dry in spring, and incapable of being mixed with the mould. When carried out during the frosts of winter, into the field in which it is to be used, it should be carefully built in dunghills of a square form, at least three or four feet in height, with clay or any other cold substance sprinkled or mixed through it. To prevent sap from running out of a dunghill, its bottom should be below the surface of the yard; and to prevent rain from running into it, it should be surrounded with a ring of close clay or sods. If the bottom be porous, let it be flagged or paved, to prevent the sap from sinking into the ground, and the overflowings of it can be carried by a gutter into some hollow, where good rich mould should be laid to receive it, which will become as good as stable dung; but the system recommended in No. XIV. is far the best preservative of the principal liquid. When dunghills heat too much, water is sometimes thrown over them to check the fermentation. This may cool the dung for a time, but, moisture being a chief agent in all the processes of rotting, (of decomposition,) to supply water to fermenting dung is to increase what you want to lessen. As dung is an article of the first importance in husbandry, one would think that the collecting it would be a great object with the industrious farmer, and that every thing would be collected which will rot. There is one article, however, almost universally neglected, to collect which there is a double motive-weeds. A farm full of these is a nuisance to its neighbourhood; it poisons the fields around, and the possessor ought to be disgraced as a pest to society. Now, the cutting down of weeds before their seed is formed answers two purposes; first it encourages good crops by keeping the ground clean-secondly, it adds to the quantity of dung. By mixing them with other substances by littering in summer, when straw is scarce, with weeds and the long rank grass of ditches, and in autumn with stubblestraw, (the pulling of which will well repay the time and labour), a vast deal of manure, which is now lost, might be saved. Good management and industry will turn every animal and vegetable matter into manure, and prevent that waste which is so common. Were I to tell you of the ways and means by which manure is made and economised in China, where it is necessary to raise food for a tremendous population, you would think me a bouncer; delicacy prevents me from entering into all the details. This much, however, has been gravely told, as an instance of the extreme economy which prevails there, that the barbers of China frequently ake respectable fortunes, by selling for manure, the suds in which they have lathered and shaved their customers. Mixing dung before fermenting with earth, in which * I do not, however, pledge my reputation for the strict truth of this story. there is much dead vegetable matter, such as the scourings of ditches, &c. is a good practice. It will rot and dissolve this dead matter, consisting of the roots of decayed grasses and other plants, and prepare it for giving nourishment: there should always be a supply of earth at hand to be mixed with fresh stable dung, and receive the juices of the dunghill. Lime is next to be considered. This is a most important manure; indeed no soil will ever be fit for much that does not contain this earth, either naturally or by artificial application. In applying lime, you should attend to the following rules: 1. Apply it in a powdery state, because its effects depend on its being well mixed with the surface soil. 2. Plough, or harrow in, lime, very lightly, because it sinks in the ground. it 3. If you lime or marl a pasture field, do not break up for a year or two afterwards, when the manure will be washed into the roots of the grasses and blended with the soil. 4. Slake your lime with water which will reduce it to a powder at once; whereas if you leave it to be slaked by accidental rain or moist air, it will not be powdered so effectually. 5. If you make a compost* of lime and clay, let a platform of any kind of mould or earth, the richer the better, be formed, about six inches thick, twelve feet wide, and as long as may be necessary for the extent of land to be manured. At one end of this let the first load of lime fresh from the kiln be placed about four inches thick. Let the lime be then not only slacked but moistened with a solution of rock-salt, or any common salt, in water, at the rate of 6lbs. of salt to each barrel of lime, pouring the solution, or pickle, gradually and evenly on the lime, as the latter is found to imbibe it. Then spread the lime thus moistened two or three inches thick on the platform, and cover • The compost, which is an imitation of soap ash, should be prepared at least two or three months before the time of using it. D it with four or five inches of mould. Let the second load of lime be placed on the platform near the first, and treated in the same manner. When the entire platform is thus covered, begin again with a second layer of lime; slake, moisten, spread and cover it, as the first, until it be also finished, and proceed in the same manner with a third and fourth layer. If the mould be not collected in one place, but deposited in a long row, as when the earth of a headland is used, one or two layers of lime and earth will be more convenient, and will be equally advantageous. When the whole is covered with earth, let the heap be cut down and well mixed, in which state it may be suffered to lie until a short time before it is used, when it should be again turned. The proportion of water in which the salt is dissolved depends on the state of the earth or mould. If the latter be wet, twenty gallons of vater impregnated with 6lbs. of salt, is sufficient for ch barrel of lime; if it be dry, half a hogshead of water to that quantity of salt and lime will be necessary. Forty barrels of lime treated in this manner is a full dressing for an acre of potatoes; half the quantity is enough as a top dressing for an acre of grass land. Limestone powdered makes an excellent manure. The road scrapings in the limestone counties is a fine substitute for burnt lime. Three pounds of unburnt lime by burning are reduced to two pounds of shell lime, yet nothing is expelled by the fire but the gas that was in the limestone-the calcareous earth remains entire. In fact, limestone, gravel, sea sand, marl, &c. are only manure, by the carbonate of lime contained in them, and limestone need not be burned, for a manure, except to make it friable and more ortable by the process. |