denominated corn-manure, was said to have proved especially active as manure for wheat, barley, oats, grass and clover. The following was the composition of 100 lbs., taken in round numbers: If we wish to imitate these manures here, we may obtain pretty nearly similar preparations in the following According to these analyses therefore this urate and this corn-manure are very similar in composition, only the latter is poorer in salts of soda, while it is richer in nitrogen and phosphoric acid; moreover it does not contain all its nitrogen in the form of ammonia, but part as free gelatine or glue, while a further portion is still contained as gelatine in the bones. It cannot be denied that the compounders of these manures followed correct principles so far, that they did not merely imitate, one-sidedly, the constituents of the ashes of the plants, for which the manures were intended to be applied, but they also paid attention to those peculiari ties of them discovered through well-known experiments in manuring. Turnips and beet grow fast, have much of soluble salts in their ashes, and develope a large number of succulent leaves; consequently these require so it seems to have been reasoned-a manure coming quickly into action and rich in soluble salts, and will be content with less nitrogen than few-leaved plants; while the cereals, on account of their poorer development of leaf, require more nitrogen, and in accordance with their longer period of vegetation, partly in the form of a less soluble compound; for the development of the grain, however, above all, a larger quantity of phosphoric acid. In the trials in the field, the two manures acted upon wheat, grass and beet, almost exactly according to the quantity of nitrogen contained, the corn-manure therefore always rather more strongly than the urate. cwt. of this manure is sold in England for 7s. 6d., so that it is probably rather too dear; but it appears to sustain pretty well the competition with guano and the sulphuric acid and bone manures. A Among the many other compositions of the English manure factories, many are furnished containing far more nitrogen (6 to 10 per cent.) and are sold to farmers in considerable quantities, at a price of 98. to 10s. 6d., under the name of artificial guano. The preparations of this kind as yet to be met with in Germany are mostly mixtures of lignite, or charcoal-ashes with sulphate of ammonia, also with bone-dust and other saline or earthy refuse, which rarely contain more than 3 per cent., and often much less of nitrogen. So long as sulphate of ammonia costs more than 18s. per cent. in Germany, the manuring compounds prepared from it will find it difficult to compete with Peruvian guano; but if this salt can be prepared at a lower price in the manure factories, by utilizing animal refuse, there would remain no doubt of the favourable result. It is to be hoped that the time is now not distant when every large town will have its manurefactory, which will save at least a portion of the abundance of refuse, in addition to that of the cess-pools, which is now lost in various ways, and will so chemically change it, that agriculture may get the benefit of it. There are no simple tests for ascertaining the value of such artificial manures; this can only be effected with approximate certainty, by chemical analysis, showing the composition. The statements here made sufficiently prove that prudence will require such a previous examination, until personal confidence in the manufacturers renders the chemical warranty superfluous*. Seed-manures. The idea of enveloping the seed in manuring substance before placing it in the ground, is certainly quite reasonable, and very useful in its practice and its effects, for it is only following a step further the path which nature herself takes in the propagation of every plant. In seeds collect, according to an eternal law of nature, all those substances which the young plant springing from the seed requires in the earliest period of its life; nitrogenous substances and phosphoric acid above all, and in the next place potash, magnesia, lime and sulphuric acid. Nature provides in this way that the young delicate plant shall be nourished by the products of decomposition of the constituents of the seed, until its roots and leaves are large and strong enough to enable it to absorb independently from the earth and air the nutrient matters requisite for further growth. If, then, we increase by seed-manuring the store of such nourishment in the seed or round about it, the young plant is enabled to obtain more, and hence to become more vigorous, than without this help, especially in those cases where the seed is at all poor and needy. No one will * Johnstone gives the following recipe for an artificial guano, which he states has formed the basis of many sorts manufactured in Great Britain, sold under different names and at different prices. (Agricultural Chemistry, 6th ed. 276.) 315 lb. Bone-dust (7 bushels at 2s. 9d.)... Pearlash, or 80 lb. of wood-ashes... 20 Dry sulphate of soda 100 20 80 25 50 610 Nitrate of soda Crude sulphate of magnesia... £ s. d. 0 19 0 0 14 6 0 4 0 016 020 050 0 1 6 £2 7 6 This quantity will equal 4 or 5 cwt. of guano, and in many places may be made at a cheaper rate.-A. H. question that a plant will better withstand unfavourable weather, and grow more vigorously subsequently, when it produces stronger roots and leaves at the outset. Hence seed-manuring will produce something like the same effect as top-dressing with guano; through which the young plant likewise receives a greater supply of manuring substance at a period when it is still able to apply this to the formation of new organs or the enlargement of those already existing. The substances which appear particularly suitable for this purpose are mixtures of fine bone-dust (wood-ashes ?), gypsum and saltpetre, which are powdered over the seeds previously moistened with dissolved glue. Guano and ground rape have indeed also proved very effective, but it is necessary to proceed cautiously with them, and only to apply them when sufficiently weakened with gypsum and loam, because they may very readily injure or even quite destroy the germinating powers of the seed. It is well known that seed-manuring has been used as a "convenient means of growing rich quickly." The names of Bickes, Köpp, and others are still fresh in memory, with their charlatanries and impositions. Whoever has bought Köpp's "Animal matter" and the closely related "Fertilizing powder," has paid a dollar for a quantity of glue, lime and earth, which he could have bought of any or every dealer for three-pence. Until the old laws of nature change, the extreme of rendering field-manuring superfluous by mere seed-manuring, will remain a chimera in agriculture, just like the discovery of the perpetual motion in mechanics. It is indeed conceivable how discoveries spring up, either from speculation or selfdeception, which try to give the lie to the old truth, out of nothing comes nothing:" but it is nevertheless difficult to understand how they always find new dupes, who take such pinchbeck for true gold; still more how even German agricultural journals can declare themselves for instead of against, this sort of "farmer-blessing" discoveries. XII. LIME AND MARL. THE manuring substances hitherto brought under notice have been such as provide the soil either with nitrogen and humus alone, or with these and mineral matters in addition. Practice, however, has taught that many earths and salts composed simply of mineral or inorganic constituents, possess the power of accelerating and increasing the growth of plants. These are usually comprised under the name of Mineral Manures. The most important of them are lime, marl, gypsum, common salt and some others. QUICK OR BURNT LIME. I consider it advantageous, before entering into details, to premise the four following general observations, in order to mark by them, at the very outset, the principal distinctions existing between lime and the manures hitherto spoken of, and to keep them in view in the discussion and comparison of the effects. They are here connected with lime and especially referred to it, because this must be regarded as the chief representative of the mineral manures, but they relate more or less also to the remaining substances of this kind, consequently to mineral manures in general. 1. Lime is generally reckoned as a "manure," and this is quite correct if we comprehend under the name of manure any kind of substance which has the power of stimulating plants to a more vigorous growth. Abundance of practical experiments exist, proving that lime really possesses this power. But there are not wanting, at the same time, many other experiments in which lime was found, if not injurious, at least inactive; and this, whether applied in a free condition as burnt or caustic lime, or combined with carbonic acid as marl or powdered limestone, or combined with sulphuric acid as gypsum. Distinguished thus essentially from stablemanure, in that it does not act as a manure in all cases, on all soils or on all kinds of crops, this may have led to the idea that lime is not properly nourishing like stable-dung, but acts somewhat like wine, salt and pepper in human |