holding any office under government. This act likewise subjects all persons having tools in their possession, or procuring them to be made, with a view to exportation, to the forfeiture of the same, as well as of the sum of 200l. and to imprisonment for the term of 12 months. Lastly, the 22 Geo. III. c. 60, declares, that every person exporting such tools, shall forfeit them, together with the sum of 500l.
MANURE, denotes any substance employed for improving land, whether by remedying its natural poverty, or by correcting its too great stiffness, looseness, or other qualities unfavourable to vegetation. It is usually divided into four classes, viz. Animal, Vegetable, Fossil, and Fluid.
I. Animal Manures comprehend the several parts of animals, such as their fat, dung, urine, &c.
1. Dung.—Having already pointed out the general properties of dung, under that article, we shall only observe, that the excrementitious matter of privies is supposed to exceed every other kind of manure, during the first year it is applied; in the second, its beneficial effects are less evident; and, in the third year, they almost entirely disappear. The quantity necessary for land in a good condition is, by Mr. Middleton, computed to be about two loads per acre, annually; which, in his opinion, will always preserve its fertility. He farther remarks, that exhausted ground may be perfectly restored, by laying on four or five loads of night-soil per acre, for the first year; after which, two loads annually will be found amply sufficient to keep the land in the highest degree of cultivation.
2. Fish.—Herrings, pilchards, and mackerel, afford an excellent manure; being chiefly used in those parts of Britain where they are caught in the greatest abundance, and seldom fail to produce rich crops.—In some parts of Cambridgeshire, stickle-backs (Gasterosteus aculeatus, L.) are employed for the same purpose, in the proportion of twenty bushels per acre: and, if it were possible to introduce the Caviar (which see) into British seas, this measure would be highly beneficial to agriculture.
3. Bones, to which we refer.
4. Urine is well calculated for manure: it is so far preferable to dung, as no seeds of weeds are deposited in the ground with the former; and, if the land be well watered with this fluid, such irrigation will be attended with the best effects.
5. Horn-shavings. See Horn.
6. The chippings or scraps of skins and hides (being the refuse of furriers and curriers) are of great utility on land intended to be sown with wheat or barley. They should be scattered by hand on the soil, and speedily ploughed in; because any pieces, left on the surface, are immediately devoured by crows and dogs. The proper quantity of this manure is, two or three quarters per acre, which should be scattered a short time before the seed is committed to the ground:—such chippings are peculiarly calculated for light, dry soils, but are seldom productive of any benefit to wet, or clay lands.
7. Sheep's-trotters, and fellmonger's cuttings, are employed on similar soils, though in the proportion of from 20 to 40 bushels per acre. They should likewise be ploughed in, to prevent the depredations of dogs and crows.
