Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 3, 1802).djvu/182

162] empty, for the reception of fresh fertilizing matter.

As manure promotes the growth of plants; as its fermentation and warmth disposes the soil for the more easy admission of nourishing moisture from the air; and as it thus eventually contributes to the support and comfort of mankind, the manner in which it is to be applied, merits some attention.

Every kind of manure, Mr. justly observes, ought to be carefully collected, duly sheltered, and ploughed in, as speedily as possible after it has been carried to the field; the implements and labourers being ready on the spot. He directs the loads to be ranged in lengths; the dung to be spread and immediately ploughed in, "line by line;" because it more readily dissolves in the ground when newly covered, and its whole strength is thus secured to the soil.

Where the manure collected in heaps is to be ploughed under clayey soils, that are liable to become too solid and impenetrable to the fibres of wheat, or other plants; and also, where potatoes, or similar bulbous roots, are intended to be turned in, with a view to produce a crop beneath the soil; Dr. conceives the most advantageous method of using such compost would be, to bury it before it is perfectly decomposed; for it will thus prevent the surface of the land from becoming too firm: and, notwithstanding the putrefaction will consequently be somewhat retarded, yet the fertilizing substances will in the end totally decay, and afford to the roots an equal, though more gradual, portion of nourishment.—The most proper season for ploughing or turning in such manures, Dr. agrees with Mr., to be immediately before the seeds are sown, or the roots are set; because the atmospheric air, which is buried with the dung, in consequence of its union with carbon in the interstices of the earth, gradually evolves a genial heat, that greatly promotes vegetation.

With respect to those manures, which are to be spread on the surface of grass or other land, and which are called top-dressings, the most favourable season for applying them appears to be the early spring; when they should be spread over the soil in a state of coarse powder, or in small lumps which cohere but slightly; because the vernal showers will then wash them into the soil, so that the young stems of grass may easily penetrate.

As, however, the proper mode of collecting and preserving manures is attended with considerable expence, the most economical manner of distributing it, requires no common skill. This object is in a great measure attained by the drill-husbandry, the principal advantage of which consists in putting the manure into drills. Mr. (in his Experienced Farmer, vol. i. p. 32) directs such drills to be made at the distance of two feet from each other: thus, he sows wheat, peas, beans, and cabbages; from the result of which this intelligent cultivator maintains, that four loads per acre in the drill-husbandry, are equal to sixteen loads in the usnal way of spreading it over the whole of the field.

Lastly, for situations where it is difficult to procure such manures as are conducive to the fertility of the soil, we shall communicate the following chemical compound, which was