to be diftinguished from the reft; but, where the foot lay in larger quantity than ordinary, as was the cafe in the places at which the loads had been hot from the carts, the fuperior vegetation was very diftinctly marked. I have, on the whole, formed the fame opinion with refpect to this fpecies of manure, as I have already ftated in regard to malt-duft, namely, that it returns the coft price, with very little profit.

6. Soap-maker's wafte. I have tried only one load of this manure, on a few rods of ground, in four of my meadows. It has not produced the leaft effect, although it is now three years fince it was laid on. Soap-maker's waffe, potafh, and barilla, are probably held in too much efteem, as preparers of the food of plants, by philofophical chymifts, of whom it might be wifhed that a little practice were combined with their theoretical ideas on the fcience of agriculture; and that they would try their fpecious theories by the teft of experiment, before they publish them to the world. I am farther induced to confider this kind of dreffing for land as of much lefs utility than is generally imagined, from having been informed by Mr. Ruffel, junior, that his father, who is a foap-maker of great refpectability, at Paris-Garden, has ufed the wafte of his own manufactory on his farms in Effex and Kent, (in the latter on a clay foil,) without difcovering that it was of a fany material benefit to the land; and that he has confequently difcontinued the

ufe of it.

The experiments made by Major Velley, as reported in the eighth

volume of papers published by the Bath fociety of agriculture, feem alfo to prove, that Dr. Hunter's food of plants does not answer any of the purpofes for which it has been fo highly extolled; but, on the contrary, that it is really hurtful to corn crops. X

7. Sweepings of London ftreets. I have used feveral hundred loads of this manure on grafs land, and have found it to be of confiderable fervice to the fucceeding crops. I have ufually laid it in large heaps, and mixed with it a fmall quantity of horfe-dung: in this ftate it generatesa little heat, though less than might be wifhed, which helps to decompofe or rot the mixture; when thus prepared, it has been fpread on the land, in the proportion of ten or twelve loads per acre.

Within this ma

8. The foil of privies. the laft four or five years, nure has been fpread on my land, to the expenfe of about 1007.; the proportion, from two to four loads per acre. The effect produced by it was aftonishing fertility; fo much fo, as to induce me to be of opinion, that it exceeds every other kind of manure that can be brought into competition with it, at leaft for the firft year after it is laid on. In the fecond, it is of fome fervice; but, in the third year, its effects very nearly or entirely ceale. From thefe premifes I draw this conclufion, that, for land in good condition, the application of two loads per acre, per annum, will continue it in ́ that state for any length of time; and alfo, that land which has been much exhaufted, might be reftored by laying on four or five loads per acre; after which, a repetition of two

loads

loads annually, would be found fufficient to keep it in the highest degree of fertility.

9. Farm-yard dung. This, when it had been once turned, and become about three-fourths rotten, I have ufed in the proportion of about thirteen or fourteen loads per acre; and found it much less effective, for one year, than three loads of night-foil. I believe that even a load and a half of foil, would have been equal to the foregoing quantity of dung. In the fecond year, I could not perceive any difference between the dung and the foil.

In the laft volume of the tranfactions of the fociety, page 168, a crop of wheat, amounting to 56 bufhels per acre, is faid to have been raifed by Mr. Henry Harper, of Lancashire; which is fo much above the general average, that Mr Harper was at a lofs how to account for it. I am inclined to think that the night-foil, contained in the mixture with which he dreffed the clofe, was the caufe of this wonderful effect.

He mentions, that the quantity of manure (confifling of night-foil, coalafes, fiveepings of Itreets, &c.) was eighty tons, and that the clofe contains eleven acres: the proportion per acre was therefore fomething

more than feven tons. He does not fay what part of this proportion was night-foil, but it was probably not lefs than four tons; a quantity which, as I have before obferved,

is fufficient of itfelf to produce one

immenfe crop.

In fhort, it appears to me that nature, following her general fyftem of re-production, prepares this matter in the most perfect manner for the purpofe of feeding vegetables, and raifing them to the very highest pitch of excellence; and it is certain,

that herbage growing under thele circumftances, is capable of fattening the largest cattle in lefs time than any other.

The importance of this kind of manure being fo evident, that I am fure the fociety will feel, equally with me, the most poignant regret, when they take into their confideration, that ninety-nine parts in every hundred of this valuable article is conftantly and most abfurdly carried by the fewers and drains, into the rivers, and thereby totally loft to the purposes of agriculture, for which it is fo admirably adapted.

In Britain alone, the quantity of this manure, and of urine, which is annually thus wafted, is aftonishingly great; probably not lefs than five millions of cart-loads, worth to the farmers two millions and a half, and to the community five millions of pounds fterling, per annum.

This fubject is, I think, well entitled to the attention of the fociety; and it would add much to the credit which they have already acquired by their patriotic labours, if they could devife the means whereby the wafte of this article might be effectually prevented.

abroad, to pack up all forts of feeds they could procure, in abforbent paper, and fend fome of them furrounded by raifins, and others by brown moift fugar, concluding, that the former feeds had been preferved, by a peculiarly favourable ftate of moisture thus afforded them. It occured, likewife, that as many of our common feeds, fuch as clover, charlock, &c, would lie dormant for years within the earth, well preferved for vegetation, whenever they might happen to be thrown to the furface, and expofed to the atmofphere, fo thefe foreign' feeds might be equally preferved, for many months at leaft, by the kindly covering, and genial moisture, that either raisins or fugar afforded them. This conjecture was really fulfilled; as not one in twenty of them failed to vegetate, when thofe of the fame kinds, that I ordered to be fent lapped in common parcels, and forwarded with them, would not grow at all.

I obferved, upon examining them all, before they were committed to the earth, that there was a prevailing drynefs in the latter, and that the former looked fresh and healthy, and were not in the leaft infefted by infects, as was the cafe with the others.

It has been tried, repeatedly, to convey feeds (of many plants difficult to raife) clofed up, in bottles, but without fuccefs; fome greater proportion of air, as well as a proper ftate of moisture, being perhaps neceflary. J

I fhould obfervé, that no difference was made in the package of the feeds, respecting their being kept in hufks, pods, &c. fo as to give thofe in raifins or fugar any advantage over the others: all being

fent equally guarded by their natural teguments. Whether any experiments of this nature have been made by others, I am totally ig norant; but I think that, fhould this mode of conveyance be pursued ftill more fatisfactorily than I have done, very confiderable advantages might refult from it.

Defcription of an eafy Method of cleaning and bleaching Prints of all Kinds, by G. Fabbroni, of Fiorence; from Brugnatelli's Annali di Chimica.

for cleaning prints have con

HE means hitherto made ufe of

fifted in wathing them in clean water, or in a weak alkaline lixivium, and then expofing them, for a confiderable time, to the dew: fometimes aquafortis has allo been used for this purpose. The alkaline lixivium, at the fame time that it removes the dirt, diffolves a part of the ink with which the impreffion is made; and aquafortis corrodes the vegetable fibres of which the paper is compofed.

Soon after Scheele's difcovery of the oxygenated muriatic acid, and the application of it, by Berthollet, to the bleaching of cloths, experiments were made to determine its effects in cleaning prints. Thofe made by Mr. Chaptal, for this purpofe, were completely fuccelsful.

This method, however, is not fo generally practifed as it deferves to be. The reafons of which, Mr. Fabbroni fuppofes to be, the trouble attending the preparation of the oxygenated muriatic acid, and the difficulty of procuring it ready made. On thefe accounts, he has thought proper to publifh the following pro

Dd3

cels: