soil when wanted. The result is, when the manure so treated is applied to the soil, that it is the most valuable of any known manure for every purpose of the farm.

2713. You have been told how the courts should be littered, and how it is best done in (1086) and (2005.) You have seen how those courts are emptied of their contents, and the proper time for emptying them (2006.) And you have witnessed how those contents are disposed of in heaps in the fields in which they shall be required, (2009,) and the reasons why they are formed in the manner recommended, (2010.) My purpose now is to inform you how those heaps should be turned to bring on them that degree of fermentation best suited for making them into good manure.

2714. Potatoes, as a crop, require a large quantity of farm dung. It is the practice of some farmers to drive the dung for potatoes direct out of the court, in its compressed state, and before it ferments at all. On strong soils, naturally unsuited to the growth of this plant, by reason of their heavy and tenacious character, long dung may be used, as it assists to relieve the pressure of the soil upon the young plant. Indeed, on such soil, I have seen a drill of potatoes manured with the dry twisted straw-ropes of the coverings of the stacks, and produce as good potatoes as good dung. So, also, potatoes may be raised on soils of that character with horsedung in a state of fire-fang. In all other sorts of soils the use of long dung incurs imminent risk of a deficiency of crop, and therefore dung should be fermented for potatoes to be raised on true potato soils.

2715. There is one objection to unfermented dung for potatoes, which seems to me insuperable; and that is-it is impossible to have the straw thrashed by the mill absolutely so clean as that not a grain of corn shall be found in it, or the seeds of weeds which have been sifted from the corn when winnowed, and thrown upon the litter in the courts; and as it is impossible to destroy the vitality of those seeds without fermentation, it is as impossible to prevent them springing up with the crop when carried there among unfermented dung. They will spring up amongst the

VOL. I.

potatoes, not in the intervals between the drills, where they might easily be removed by the horse-hoe, but actually amongst the potato-plants, growing with them, and deriving as much nourishment from the dung as the potatoes themselves. I have frequently seen such an intermixture of potato-plants and weeds at various places, and very dirty and slovenly farming it makes. Having a piece of ground trenched from an old plantation, and being comparatively clean, I was desirous of raising potatoes upon it for the first crop; and having no dung ready prepared for this extra space of ground, what it required was taken from the court in which the cornbarn was situated, and the result was that a considerable number of stalks of corn grew amongst the potatoes. No doubt, the weeds that thus spring up amongst the potatoes may be removed by the fieldworkers with the draw-hoe; but the labour of removing large plants, and especially when forced in growth by powerful manure, is considerable, and the weeding cannot be accomplished without removing a considerable part of the useful soil around the young potato plants. It is certainly much better farming to have no plants to remove from such a position, than to have them to remove.

2716. A dunghill which has been placed on the field as formerly described (2009,) and which is intended to be applied to the potato crop, should be turned about a fortnight before it is to be used; and, before commencing to turn it, it should be considered from which end it will be most convenient to take the dung and lay it on the land. On the supposition that that end is nearest the headridge, and that the dung for potatoes requires only one turning, it should be begun to be turned at the end farthest from the headridge. The unturned dung-heap slopes a little at both ends, but the turned dunghill should be made of the same height throughout. A dunghill is turned over in a succession of breadths or daces as they are called. The usual width marked off on the dungheap for the breadth of the dace to be turned is 3 feet, which affords sufficient room for people to work in; but the first few spaces upon which the first daces of the heap are laid, should be made narrower than 3 feet, until the desired height

2 R

of the turned dunghill is attained at the end, which is done by throwing up the turned dung to a greater height than that of the end of the dunghill. The effect of this arrangement is, as the turning approaches the middle of the dung-heap, where it is of the greatest height, the space upon which the dung is turned upon will be more than 3 feet in width, and the additional width will be required at the middle, and on both sides of it, that the extra height of the dung-heap there may be reduced to the level of the new ends. After the middle has been passed, the spaces turned upon should be gradually lessened in width towards the end at which the turning is finished, where, as at the commencement, the turned dung will have to be thrown to a greater height than the dung-heap, to attain the medium height of the turned dunghill. There is more of good management in attending to these particulars of turning a dunghill than at first sight may seem necessary, because the turned dunghill will not ferment equally throughout, when it is of different heights. The greatest heat will be at the highest part, where the dung will become comparatively short and compact, whilst at the shallowest parts it will continue crude and unprepared; and those different states of manure will have of course very different effects upon the soil. In ordinary practice, miscalculations are continually made as to what will be the uniform height of the dunghills, and the consequence is, they are always lower at the ends than in the middle; and if an endeavour is afterwards made to equalise the height, it is done by throwing the dung off the middle towards the ends-the effect of which expedient is, that no union takes place between the dung which was turned over in the regular manner with what is thus afterwards thrown upon it; they remain in different states, and rise differently to the graip when removed into the cart; and the middle part having been trampled upon when the dung from it was placed on the ends, it becomes much harder than the ends, and consequently presents a different degree of fermentation.

2717. Laying down these rules by which dunghills should be turned, the mechanical part of the operation is executed in the following manner :-The people required

to do this work are a man and a few fieldworkers, according to the size of the dunghills; and of this latter class, women are by far the best hands at turning dunghills, because, each taking a smaller quantity of dung at a time upon a smaller graip than the ordinary one fig. 82, the dung is more intimately mixed together than when men are employed at this work, who take large graipfuls, and merely lift them from one side of the trench they are working in to the other, without shaking each graipful to pieces.

2718. Turning dung is not a cleanly work for women, their petticoats being apt to be much soiled in the trench by the dung on both sides; but the plan which the Berwickshire women adopt of keeping this part of their dress clean, is to tie the bottom of the petticoat with the garters just below the knee.

2719. The man's duty is to cut the dungheap into daces of 3 feet in width, across the breadth of the heap, with the dungspade, fig. 191, in the manner described in (2012.)

2720. The drier portions of the dung are put into the interior of the dunghill, and, when different sorts of dung are met with, they are intermingled in small graipfuls as intimately as possible. Each dace of the dung-heap is cut off, and turned over from the top to the bottom. When the bottom of the dace is reached, the scattered straws, and the earth which has been damped by the exudation from the dung-heap, are shovelled up with the square-mouthed shovel, fig. 83, or the frying-pan shovel, fig. 233, and thrown into the interior. When straw-ropes are met with, they should be cut into small pieces, and scattered amongst the dampest parts of the dung-heap. Though the dung-heap is cut into parallel trenches, the dung from the top of one trench is not thrown upon the bottom of the former one, but upon the breast of the turned dung, so that the turned dung slopes away from the workpeople. The utility of this mode of turning is, that when the dung is carting away, it not only rises freely with the graip, but the dung is intimately mixed, and not in separate loose trenches. When a dung-heap is thus turned over, and its form preserved

as it should be, it constitutes a parallelopipedon, and is a good-looking piece of work.

2721. Fig. 233 represents the frying-
Fig. 233.
pan shovel, which is
so named by its simi-
larity to that culinary
utensil. It is also
called the lime shovel,
as being well adapted
for the spreading of
lime, upon the land;
the raised back pro-
tects the hand from the
lime while the sharp
point passes easily
under the lime, mak-
ing way for the sole
to slip along the bot-
tom of the cart. The
use of this shovel is
chiefly confined to
the Border counties.
When mounted with
a helve, and of the
medium size, it costs
3s. 10d.

THE FRYING-PAN OK LIME SHOVEL.

2722. Unless much rain has fallen from the time the dung was led out of the court until the heap is turned, the dung will not be very moist, and not at all wet, though in a free workable state, with a slight degree of heat in it, and evaporation would be observable from it, were the air cold at the time of turning. Very little moisture will have come from the heap. After this turning over, shaking up, and mixing together, which should be finished in the same heap as quickly as possible, that the whole mass may have the same time to ferment, a considerable degree of heat may be expected to show itself in the dung in the course of a few days. There is no danger of this first fermentation producing a great degree of heat, as the air is still cool at night, and the largest proportion of the heaps consists of the dung of cattle, which is slow of fermentation at all times, and particularly in the early part of the season. The first external symptom of fermentation is the subsidence in the bulk of the heap, which, in the course of a fortnight, at this season, may contract 1 foot of height. A perceptible smell will then arise from the dung, accompanied with

a flickering of the air over it, which is occasioned by the escape of vapour and of gases. By inserting a few sticks into the heap here and there, a heat considerably above that of the hand will be felt on them, the relative heat of different parts ascertained, and the greatest heat may be expected at the side opposite from whence the wind comes. The substance of the dunghill becomes more consolidated in consequence of the fermentation, and also more uniform; and a black-coloured liquid will ooze from its sides, at the ground. If the soil upon which the dunghill stands was soft when the dunghill was formed, the oozing will be absorbed by it, and exhibit but little wetness at the surface; but if the soil was firm, the moisture will remain on the surface, and form small pools in the ruts of the cart-wheels or in the open furrows. All the leakage, if collected in even one pool, would afford but a trifling quantity; indeed much moisture cannot exude from a dung-heap derived from courts in which the cattle are supplied with as much litter as will keep them both dry and warm.

2723. The turnip dunghill receives a somewhat different treatment, but still conformable to the purpose for which it is destined. It is turned twice, and on this account is begun to be turned at the opposite end to that for potatoes, or at the end nearest the headridge; but the same mode is practised in turning it, as that just described for the potato dunghill. After the turning, it is allowed to ferment for about a fortnight. At the second turning, which is given about a fortnight or ten days before the dung is used, the operation is commenced at the end at which the former turning terminated, and is more easily performed than the first, inasmuch as the substance is more easily cut with the dung-spade, more easily separated and shaken with the graip, and less care is required to retain the rectangular figure formerly given to the dunghill.

2724. The weather at the second turning will be warm, and the fermentation, of course, rapid; so that apprehension may be excited that it will proceed to a degree injurious to the materials composing the dunghill. A spitful of earth thrown upon the top of the dunghill, will

check rapid fermentation to a certain degree. For raising turnips, however, there is little dread of the fermentation proceeding too far, as it is matter of experience that the more effectually the fermentation has run its course, the dung becomes the more valuable for the nourishment of the turnip plant, as is well known to every turnip farmer. When in this valuable state, heat has almost entirely left it, it has become like soft soap, and rises in lumps with the graip, and would almost cut into pieces with the shovel. It is sappy, cohesive, greasy, heavy, and of a dark brownish-black colour. The larger the mass in this state, the more valuable it is for turnips.

2725. It is supposed by many farmers who grow Swedish turnips largely,that dung cannot be made into this state in time for Swedish turnips, which ought to be sown before the middle of May; and, in ordinary seasons in Scotland, the observation, I daresay, is correct. To obviate the want of so valuable an ingredient as old muck, it is the practice of some farmers to keep dung on purpose over the year. This would be impracticable on farms which depend entirely on their own produce for the manure applied on them; but let a sacrifice be made for one year, of collecting farm-yard dung from external sources, and forming it into a dunghill for the succeeding year, or of purchasing other manure to a large extent for one year, to raise the crop of turnips, and reserve the farm-yard dung for the Swedish turnips of the next year, and the object is gained. I have known farmers attain this object to a partial extent, but no one whom I have observed practised it to so great an extent as Mr Smith, when he was at Grindon in North Durham, where he possessed a fine stock of short-horns. The dung of the year was made fit for white turnips, which were not sown for a month or so after the swedes, and then heat and time combined to bring it to a proper state for use.

2726. This mode of preparing farm-yard manure is now decried as being wasteful of the most valuable part of the manure. No doubt some waste of the dung-heap takes place ere the dung is converted to the state just described; and, were means available to prevent the least waste, while

the object of procuring the manure in the best state was secured, those means would be a desirable attainment. But the same necessity for having the dung in that state does not exist now as it did then. One infallible means has been put into the power of farmers to raise a good crop of turnips, and this is the sole object which the old plan had in view. It is now found that the use of a little guano secures the health and growth of the turnip plant at the early stage of its existence; and the farm-yard dung having been relieved from this necessary and essential care, and most onerous part of its duty, it may safely be consigned to the ground before reaching the state described above, and there, instead of in the fermenting dung-heap, become prepared for supporting the turnip plant at a more advanced period of its existence. This happy change serves to preserve some of the bulk of the farm-yard manure, and to extend it over a larger space of ground.

2727. This being the case, let us attend to the dung-heap, as proposed to be treated in the new or improved mode, and which is represented in fig. 192. In pursuance of the amended plan, the dung intended to be used for the potato crop should be allowed to remain in the court, until about a fortnight or three weeks before it is to be used, when it should be taken out to be fermented-for fermented it ought to be before it is used-and the place it should be taken to be fermented is the dung-pit in the field, fig. 192, into which it should be carefully shaken with the graips by the field-workers; and as the above mode is the most convenient for a dung-heap to be thrown by the graip into the cart when it is wanted for the field, so the dung, as it is brought from the court, in the carts, to the dung-pit, should be turned and shaken into regular daces, one after the other, in the dung-pit, beginning at a given point, and throwing up the dung upon the face of the dace with a slope, until the height is reached which the turned dung-heap should have in the dung-pit.

2728. The dung, which has been kept in an uncompressed state in a particular court at the steading, as formerly noticed in (2013,) becomes sufficiently fermented for potatoes, where it is, and may be driven

2729. The dung for the turnips was led out to the field at the proper season, (2019) and placed in heap in fig. 192 to await its further treatment, and that time will have arrived whenever the dung-pit has been cleared of the dung for the potato crop, on the supposition that the potatoes and the turnips are to be raised in the same field. In case the potatoplanting should be delayed from some cause, it will be well to arrange to take the white turnips in the same field with the potatoes, when the dung for them will have plenty of time to be prepared; but the dung-pit for the dung intended for swedes, should be occupied by the beginning of May at latest.

2730. The turnip dung-heap, occupying its site d, in fig. 192, receives this treatment in preparation for the swedes: The dung-heap is begun at one end to be wheeled on barrows, fig. 87, into the dung-pit, where it should be thrown up with the graips by the field-workers in a regular manner, dace after dace, beginning at one end of the dung-pit and progressing backwards towards the other end. If the height of the turned heap is above the reach of the throw the field-workers can easily make, two or three planks should be laid down parallel to the dace they are working at, the dung wheeled upon them from the dung-heap, and they will afford a footing to those turning the dung, and from them the dung can be thrown to the requisite height. The dry straw around the ends, and sides, and top of the dung-heap should be carefully scattered in the dung-pit among the sappiest portions of the dung, and covered up by the same. In this way the entire dung-heap may be transformed from the stance in the outside to the inside of the dung-pit. The fieldworkers will wheel the barrows as well as men, one man only being required to cut the dung-heap into small pieces with the dung spade. The ground on which the dung-heap stood should be carefully shovelled clean as the dung is wheeled away, and the shovelling should be performed by the man, alternately with the cutting of the dung. After the entire dung-heap has been turned in the dung-pit, the shutters

in the meantime as doors, and the dung left to ferment until it is wanted.

2731. Long sticks should be stuck in all dung-heaps undergoing fermentation, that a knowledge may be gained of what is going on in the interior. The degrees of heat, and the consistency of the manure heap, will indicate whether the former is proceeding to too high a degree for safety to the heap, and the latter will exhibit unequal sinkings in its mass in those places which had been either insufficiently loosened, or its component parts irregularly mixed. On this account it is of great importance to exercise a constant superintendence over the turning of dung-heaps.

ON THE PLANTING OF POTATOES.

2732. The potato crop is cultivated on what is called the fallow division of the farm, being considered an ameliorating crop for the soil. Following a crop of grain, whose stubble is bare in autumn, the land for the potato crop is ploughed early, that it may receive all the treatment which winter can exercise, to make it tender; and as potatoes affect a dry and light soil, the land for them may be ploughed early in spring, and even then partially cleaned. The time for cleaning land is very limited in spring, and ought not to be depended on-so the cleanest portion of the fallow-break should be chosen for the potatoes to occupy.

2733. The stubble land will either have been cast, fig. 22, in autumn, or cloven down without a gore-furrow, fig. 27, according as the soil is strong or light; and having been particularly provided with gaw-cuts, to keep it as dry as possible all winter, it may probably be in a state to be cross-ploughed, fig. 229, soon after the spring wheat and beans have been sown, if either of these crops is cultivated on the farm; and if not, the cross-ploughing for potatoes constitutes the earliest work in spring after the ploughing of the lea.

2734. After the cross-ploughing, the land is thoroughly harrowed a double tine along the line of the furrow, and a double tine across it; and any weeds and stones,