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water, of a bitter taste. It likewise contains an empyrenmatic oil. Its great basis is
charcoal, in a finely divided state, capable of being rendered soluble by the action of
oxygen and water. Its valuable fertilising powers are due to the salts of ammonia
which it contains. This manure requires no preparation.
1292. Liquid Manure. The cultivators of German Switzerland give the name of
gi'dle, and the French that of lizier, to the liquid manure obtained from their stalls and
stables, and collected into underground pits or reservoirs, in which it is allowed to ferment
iu a mucous or slimy state. The manner of collecting it, adopted by the cultivators
of Zm-ich, is as follows : — The floor on which the cattle ai-e stalled is formed of boards,
with an inclination of four inches from the head to the hinder part of the animal, whose
excrements fall into a gutter behind, in the manner usual in English cow-houses : the
depth of this gutter is fifteen inches, its width ten inches. I t is so formed as to be
capable of receiving, at pleasure, water to be supplied by a reseiwoir near it ; it com-
. municates with five pits by holes, which are opened for the passage of the slime, or
closed as occasion requires. The pits or reservoirs of manure are covered over with a
floor of boai-ding, placed a little below that on which the animals stand. This covering
is important as facilitating the fcimentation. The pits or reservoirs are made in masonry,
wcU cemented, and should be bottomed in clay, weU beaten, in order to avoid infiltration.
They should be five, in order that the liquid may not be distm-bed during the
fermentation, which lasts about four weeks. Their dimensions should be calculated
according to the number of animals the stable holds, so that each may be filled in a
week. But whether full or not, each pit must be closed at the week’s end, in order to
maintain the regularity of the system of emptying. The reservofrs aa-e emptied by
means of portable pumps. In the evening the keeper of the stables lets a proper quantity
of water into the gutter ; and on returning to the stable in the morning, he carefully
mixes with the water the excrement that has fallen into it, breaking up the more
compact parts, so as to foi-m of the whole an equal and flowing liquid. On the perfect
manner in which this process is perfoi-med the quality of the manure mainly depends.
The liquid ought neither to be thick, for then the fermentation would be difficult ; nor
too thin, for in that case it would not contain sufficient nutritive matter. When the
mixture is made, it is allowed to nm off into the pit beneath, and the stable-keeper
again lets water into the trench. During the day, whenever he comes into the stable,
he sweeps whatever excrement may be found under tbe cattle into the trench, which
may be emptied as often as the liquid it contains is found to be of a due thickness. The
best proportion of the mixture is three fourths of water to one fourth of excrement, if
the cattle be fed on corn ; if in a course of fattening, one fifth of excrement to four fifths
of water will be sufficient. (Bull, du Comité d’Âgri. de la Soc. des Arts de Génève.)
This mode of increasing the manure produced by stalled cattle and cows is in general
use in Holland aud the Netherlands ; and we have seen it practised in France at Trappe
and Grignion near Versailles, at Roville near Nancy, at Ebersberg, and Schleisshcim
near Munich, and at Hohenheira and Weil near Stuttgard. We would strongly recommend
the practice to the British cultivator, and more especially to evci-y cottager who
keeps a cow or a pig ; nay, to the cottager who is without these comforts, but who has
a garden, in which he could turn the gTeat accession of manure so acquired to due
account. Let him sink five tubs or large earthen vessels in the ground, and let the
contents of the portable receiver of his water-closet, all the water used for washing in the
house, soap-suds, slops, and fermentable offals of every description during a week be
carried and poured into one of these tubs ; and if not full on the Saturday night, let it
be filled up with water of any kind, well stin-ed up, the lid replaced, and the whole left
for a week. Begin on the Monday morning with another tub, and when, after fii’e
weeks, the whole five are filled, empty the first at the roots of a growing crop, andrcfiil.
Or use two larger tubs, and continue filling one for a month ; then begin the other, and
at the end of a month empty the first ; and so on.
S ü B S E C T . 3 . 0 / the Fermenting, Preserving, and Applying o f Manures o f Animal and
Vegetable Origin.
1293. On the management o f organic manures depends much of their value as food to
plants. The great mass of manures procured by the cultivator is a mixture of animal
and vegetable matters, and the great source of supply is the farm or stable yard. Here
the excrcmentitious matter of horses, cattle, swine, and poultry, is mixed with straw,
haulm, chaff, and various kinds of litter. To what degree should this be fermented
before it is applied to the soil ? and how can it best be preserved when not immediately
wanted ? -,
1294. I t is the common practice with gardeners to suffer the stable dung to ferment till
the fibrous texture of the vegetable matter is so entirely broken down that the whole
ma.ss can be easily cut with the spade ; and long experience has shown that this is the
best' state for a,pplying stable manure to tlie ground. Some years since, when cliemistry
filSt began to be applied to agTiculture, Sir Humphry Davy, a very eminent chemist
tried numerous experiments which, in his opinion, appeared to prove“ that by this mode
oi termenting dung a great proportion o fth e ammonia and carbonic acid wliich it contained
escaped during this fermentation, and in order to avoid tJic loss of this valuable
matter, he recommended that the dung should be applied to the ground wliile in a
recent state, and suffered to complete its fei-mentation in the soil. Other writers on the
subject advised the covering of dung-hills with soil, to prevent the escape of the ammoniacal
gases ; and these opinions continued to be maintained for several yeai-s in despite
ot the practice of the best cultivators, who resolutely persevered in using those means
which they found were followed by the best results.
1295. The doctrine o f humus in the fo im o f humic acid being one of the most important
pai-ts of the food of plants was first broached in the beginning of tbe present centuiy
and It was eagerly received, as it seemed to reconcile theory with practice, and to account
for the advantage which practical men found in using stable manure in a putrescent
state : — “ In 1802, the celebrated IGaproth received from Palermo a substance which
exuded spontaneously from the bark of a species of elm, and to which Dr. Thomson
grave the temporary name of ulmin. It dissolves speedily in a small quantity of watcr
in which respect it is lilce a gum ; but when the solution is vei-y much concentrated by
evaporation, it is not in the least mucilaginons or ropy, nor does it answer as a paste
and m this respect it differs essentially from gum. When a few drops of nitric or
^ oxymunatic acid are added to the solution, it becomes a gelatinous mass, which when
slowly evaporated to dryness, and heated with alcohol and again evaporated, leaves a
hght brown bitter and sharp resinous substance. Thus it appeai-s that nhnin, by the
addition of a little oxygen, is converted into a resinous substance. Iu this new state it
IS insoluble m water. This property is veiy singular. That a substance soluble in w-ater
should assume the resinous form with such facility, is very remarkable. (Thomson’s Chemistnj,
vol. iv. p. 696.) Berzelius has found this cniious substance in all barks ; Bracon-
not m sawdust, starch, and sugar. But, what is more to our puipose, Sprengel and
PolydoreBouUayhave found it to constitute a leading principle in aU soils and manures
Sprengel appropriately caUs it humin from its existence in all sods, ulmin being given
to It by Dr. Thomson as a temporaiy name.” (Quart. Jour. Agr., vol. iv. p. 620.)
1296. Humic acid and carhonic acid gas, mixed with wiaier, constituted, according to this
theory, the chief food of plants; and eveiy description of manure was only valuable in
proportion as it contained these substances. Humic acid is found in abundance in putrescent
manure when it is so far rotted as that it may be cut with a spade ; and it has been
proved that rotten dung contains much more carbonic acid gas and humic acid, weight
for weight, than fresh dung. Fi-esh dung is injurious to vegetation in consequence of
Its ammonia, which, from its acridity, in practice, is found to bm-n plants. Ammonia
becomes concentrated in stale liquid manures, and such manures arc, therefore, mixed
lightly with water, “ in order to dilute the ammonia, and allow the proper action of the
humic acid, which exists in large quantity in them.” Covering a dunghill with soü in
hot weather is also explained as preventing the escape of ammonia ; the fi'csh earth
absorbing and condensing the gases which would otherwise be dispersed in the afr.
Violent fermentation in the dung is checked by the earth partly excluding tho atmospheric
air and rain water ; the oxygen in either of which is indispensable to continue
the process of forming carbonic acid gas by uniting with the dung. In regard to composts,
it is said that to mix lime with fresh or rotten dung is to waste it ; because the
lime takes up and rendei-s useless the caibonic acid gas wliich it contains, and decomposes
salts of ammonia. In like manner, a compost of fresh dung and weeds, groen leaves,
grass, turf, and green vegetables, without lime, is valuable, because all tbese substances
supply abundance of humin. On the other hand, lime promotes the fermentation of
peat earth, dry leaves, and every thing which contains hard woody fibre, and supplies
humin in quantity.
1297. The writings o /Z ie ify , which were first published to the world in 1840, at
length afforded a better method of reconciling practice with theory. Tho important fact
that plants derive the greater portion of even their cai-bon from the air explained the
reason why it was necessaiy to turn over stable manm-e frequently wliile it was undergoing
the progress of decay, as it is found that this process makes it imbibe fr-om the
air those gases whicb are most wholesome to plants, while the bui-ning ammoniacal
gases are so mcllo-ived down, by combination with carbonic acid and other substances,
as to be no longer injurious, but, on the contraiy, become most important constituents
of the manure.
1298. Thus the practical cvltinator, ^b o , nohvithstanding Sir Iltunphiy Da-iy’s deductions
from his experiments, continued to prefer using manure in a higUy fei-mented
state, so as to be wliat in practice is called short muck, is now fully justified by science.
It is found, indeed, as practical men always asserted, that the decomposition of a dung-'
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