manure.

done latterly in every part of the United Kingdom by draining, deepening, and otherwise permanently improving the soil; much has yet to be done in that way, and I trust will shortly be accomplished. A permanent improvement, however, once well done will serve for a number of years, a lifetime, or a century; but it is not so with manures—a constant and never-ceasing supply is absolutely necessary to ensure fertility; and, in proportion as these are dealt out liberally or otherwise, will land of every class and quality make an ample or scanty returns. Much can be done by superior management and cultivation of the soil, but our chief hopes of abundant crops must depend upon the supply of It is rather singular, that at this time of day such difference of opinion, and different practices should prevail, even in the best cultivated districts, on a subject that we should suppose every farmer ought to be intimate with, and a subject so immediately connected with his success in life. At a time when agricultural improvement and superior knowledge are obviously making rapid progress, and finding their way into all, even the remotest parts of the country, we should suppose this vital question, the collection and management of manures, would be prominent; first discussed, and best understood. But do we find it so ? I fear not. I doubt there is a lamentable ignorance, as I know there is a culpable neglect, and erroneous practice prevailing among the great majority of our farmers on the subject. With all my great respect for the extensive cultivators of the sister countries, and of my own, I am constrained to say, that I believe the great majority are going on a very objectionable system of management. A great number depend on grazing. Another party go too far, and depend on grain crops. Another is confined to an alternate course of both. Neither of these systems is calculated to bring the land to its most productive state, or make a fair return to the manager. In all such cases there must be a lamentable want of manure; money must be expended on extraneous substances, or the land will come to a state of poverty. In grazing, the land will not deteriorate; but it never returns one-half what it ought, either to the owner or to the community. There is one system which I would rejoice to see adopted generally, not only in this, but in other countries-a system that would remedy all the evils so long and generally felt by the want of manure-would supply at all times, and in all situations, an abundance of this necessary ingredient, bringing the land into the highest state of cultivation, rendering the farmer independent of all extraneous manures; and in a great measure equalizing the value of land in different parts of the country. I mean the system of main

taining a sufficient quantity of stock on the farm; house-feeding this stock summer and winter, and raising green-crops for that purpose; and which is equally applicable to a large or small holding.

There is a mode of managing manure which has been tried by many with great success; that is, as the dung is sufficiently made and saturated, to draw it out, spread it, and immediately plough it into the ground intended for green crops. This plan has succeeded particularly well for potatoes. The fresh strong dung immediately induces a fermentation and heat in the ground, acts on the inert matter in the soil it comes in contact with, and renders it soluble, acting both as lime and dung, in preparing the food of plants; the carbonaceous matter and earths in the soil retaining the gases, and preventing escape or evaporation. These views may seem novel, but they are founded on actual experience and observation, and are at least worthy of a fair trial on so important a question.

The proper time to commence the collection of manure is in June, or immediately after the last of the former season has been used for turnips. If the cattle are house-fed, and all weeds and refuse of the farm rendered available, the summer is the chief time for making the manure, but in order to do the thing efficiently a daily attention will be required. On anything of a large farm, a man should be employed at this work alone, collecting the dung from the different houses, the weeds from the ditches and roadsides, earth, and peat, if convenient, and bringing all to the main heap, to be mixed as required. Every day the fresh urine and slops in the reservoir should be scattered over the heap, and the liquid manure at the opposite side either drawn out, to be applied to crops, or returned to the dung-heap. A man so employed would make a better return for his wages than any other labourer on the farm. In respect to the liquid manure, this is a grand point to be observed. All manure, of whatever kind, will become liquid, and eventually gaseous ; it must be so before it becomes the food of plants, and the nearer that state it is, the sooner it will accomplish its ultimate purpose; but the manure in decomposing is not reduced to its elements in the process, new compounds are formed, the oxygen and carbon form carbonic acid, another portion of oxygen and hydrogen form water, and the remaining hydrogen and nitrogen form ammonia. Besides these compounds (particularly if the dung-heap is composed of a variety of vegetable matter) a considerable quantity of the salifiable bases, in combination with acids, and in solution in water, as soluble salts, are present; if the urine has been regularly thrown over the dung-heap, it immediately decomposes,

and here are another set of ingredients, the phosphates and salts of ammonia, in solution, which join and enrich the already formed liquid which runs from the dunghill. Now, it is well known that carbonic acid, ammonia, and water, with the various resinous salts in solution, are the true food, nourishment, and sustenance of plants, and these same compounds, when absorbed and acted on by heat, light, and air, undergo other chemical changes, and produce all the multitudinous variety of the vegetable world, which again is the sustenance of animals. These facts ought to startle the farmer, and make him reflect that the black foetid fluid which oozes from his dung-heap, and is wasted away to the gripe, or suffered to evaporate in the air, is the true food and sustenance of plants, already prepared, cooked (as it were) for their use; and this is the reason why the same substance acts so instantaneously and effectually on almost every plant to which it is applied in its pure state. These considerations should induce him to hoard this liquid like gold in the chest; this is the essence of the manure, the spirit of the dung-heap; when this is gone what remains is comparatively inert and useless; he should, therefore, collect it constantly and carefully, carry it out to enrich his crop or return it to the dung-heap; he should never forget that a dung-heap which has the liquid manure in it and one that has lost it, are very different subjects, and will act differently on his crops. A quantity of rich earth ought always to be near the dung-heap, and to cover and prevent the escape of gases, and spread about to absorb the liquid that might run off.

Another subject on which much difference of opinion prevails, viz., whether organic manure ought to be decomposed before using, or ploughed into the ground recent and fresh? With all deference to the opinions of Sir Humphrey Davy, and other modern writers who agree with him, and recommend the latter plan, I entertain a different view. I would prefer the well-rotted dung. I think the idea of using rough or fresh dung, and the recommendations to do so, arose from the manner in which such substances were, and are still, I fear, usually treated; suffered to lie so long exposed to the atmosphere, fermenting and giving off their fertilizing qualities, and allowing the liquid to run to waste; but if the dung-heap be treated in a proper manner, no such loss can be sustained. Wherever there is a quantity of straw, and other accumulations of vegetables, and even animal dung, there will be the seed of annual or other plants. If this be used fresh and undecomposed, the seed will be fresh, will start in the spring, will dirty the land and the

crop, and perpetuate the farmer's annoyance; but no such thing can happen when the heap is decomposed: the heat generated by the process and continued, and the new fermentation induced repeatedly by the fresh urine and liquid thrown constantly over it, will dissipate the germ of every such seed, and, practically, we find the well-rotted dung always produces the clean crop. The gardener is no mean authority on this, as well as on many other agricultural subjects; we invariably find him and the steward at loggerheads about the dung. The former will always select the best corner of the dung-heap, which is well rotted, pulpy, and full of liquid, cutting with his spade like soap. Such highly concentrated and powerful substance he finds necessary to force the large and repeated crops he is required to produce. The steward again complaining, that, besides taking too much, he (the gardener) selects the best, and leaves the refuse for the farm. In the use of rough or fresh dung and compost, the land is more likely to be cheated, than by using the wellrotted concentrated manure from the original heap. With regard to tanks for catching and saving the liquid manure, they may be useful and necessary to a certain degree, but certainly not to the extent sometimes used and recommended on the Continent. Where peat, light earth, and other substances are used to absorb it, and these thrown on the heap alternately with the dung, I think it a better plan to preserve it; but if the liquid be required for the vegetables of the farm or garden, or for top-dressing lawns or other grasses, a very simple contrivance may be made at the under part of the dunghill to suit all the purposes; but one thing must be particularly observed, that the tank ought never to be on the same side of the dung-pit, or in communication with the sewer which contains the fresh urine and liquid from the houses; it ought always to be on the opposite side, and where it will catch the liquid which has passed through the dung-heap. The alkaline qualities of fresh urine will undoubtedly be injurious to vegetation if applied in that state; it ought always to be allowed to ferment, or be thrown over the dung-heap where fermentation is going on, and where it will immediately join the process, be decomposed, and run in with the other liquid manure in its most powerful state; this may be used with safety and the best effects, no matter how concentrated, to almost any crop. The using it in its fresh and caustic state has sometimes raised a prejudice against it.

Two very important substances have been used as substitutes for farm-yard manure-I mean bone-dust and guano. They are entitled to rank far above any others of the recently-prepared manures, on account of their well-ascertained, steady effects, particularly in producing green

crops. Guano, from its suiting every soil, and almost every crop, when judiciously applied, is calculated to produce a revolution in the agricultural world, in raising turnips and other green-crops in our worn-out soils already in cultivation, and inducing the improvement of our waste and hitherto unproductive lands: in these respects the discovery and use of this substance is an important era in the history of farming. No farmer can now be excused who wants a sufficiency of green crops for his cattle; a comparative trifle in the purchase of guano will produce him a crop of turnips, and start him in a new and profitable course of management. To the cultivator who commences the first year in a poor farm without manure, or who wishes to extend his cultivation, and provide for the keep of additional stock, this manure is invaluable, sets him at once upon his legs, and places him in a proper and advantageous position; but, being so placed, and provided with a sufficiency of food for an adequate number of cattle, if he house-feed and mind his dung-pit, he will not again require guano, or any other extraneous manure, but will have quite sufficient for all his purposes, and of a quality superior to anything that ever was or is likely to be discovered.

THE AGRICULTURE OF SOUTH AND NORTH BRITAIN

COMPARED.

It is not until you reach the further part of Northumberland that superior farming is found. There indeed around Belford you find it excellent, and on the land of Lord Grey and of Greenwich Hospital; I may mention also the farm of Mr. Nairn at Warne Mills, near Belford, and that of Mr. Jobson, of Chillingham; again too, in following the banks of the Till, down to the Tweed: yet even between these two fine districts a moorland tract must be crossed, neglected indeed, but not barren. So again in Scotland, 30 miles beyond Berwick, arriving at Dunbar you find, along the sea-coast, some of the famous farms of East Lothian. It is an extraordinary soil, for which the tenants, farming admirably, pay the well-known rents of £4 or £5 the acre, which some suppose to be the common rents of East Lothian. But ride two or three miles only inland, and you find, first, land well farmed at £2 an acre; then land at £1 per acre-some of it very ill farmed, foul, and out of condition; then the Lammermoor Hills, which are not farmed at all, but are in the same state as Lincoln Heath when the Dunston