Under this title our attention must be confined to the faeces and urines of animals, and that one most common compound, stable dung.

Night-soil is the richest of the manures to be arranged under this head. It is composed of human faeces and urine, of which the constituents are as follows: -

After stating the above analyses in his excellent work, "On Fertilizers," Mr. Cuthbert Johnson proceeds to observe that, "The very chemical composition, therefore, of this compost would indicate the powerful fertilizing effects which it is proved to produce. The mass of easily soluble and decomposable animal matters and salts of ammonia with which it abounds, its phosphate of lime, its carbonate of soda, are all, by themselves, excellent fertilizers, and must afford a copious supply of food to plants.

"The disagreeable smell may be destroyed by mixing it with quicklime; and if exposed to the atmosphere in thin layers in fine weather, and mixed with quicklime, it speedily dries, is easily pulverized,and in this state may be used in the same manner as rape cake, and delivered into the furrow with the seed".

From the experiments of M. Schubler and others, the relative value of night-soil is as follows: -

"If a given quantity of the land sown without manure yields three times the seed employed, then the same quantity of land will produce five times the quantity sown when manured with old herbage, putrid grass or leaves, garden stuff, etc.; seven times with cow-dung; nine times with pigeon's dung; ten times with horse-dung; twelve times with human urine; twelve times with goat's dung; twelve times with sheep's dung; and fourteen times with human manure, or bullock's blood. But if the land be of such quality as to produce without manure five times the sown quantity, then the horse-dung manure will yield fourteen, and human manure nineteen and two-thirds the sown quantity." - Johnson's Fertilizers.

Fowl Dung-, if composed partly of that of the duck, which is a gross feeder, is nearly equal to guano. This, and that of the pigeon contain much ammonia, and all abound in phosphate of lime, mixed with decomposing organic matters and uric acid, all highly valuable as fertilizers.

Stable or Farm-yard Dung is usually composed of the following matters: -

But besides the above, it contains common salt, phosphate of lime, and sul phate of soda.

"One thousand parts of dry wheat straw being burnt, yielded M. Saussure forty-eight parts of ashes; the same quantity of the dry straw of barley yielded forty-two parts of ashes. The portion dissipated by the fire would be principally carbon, (charcoal,) carbu-retted hydrogen, gas, and water; one hundred parts of these ashes are composed of -

"The straw of barley contains the same ingredients, only in rather different proportions.

"The solid excrements of a horse fed on hay, oats, and straw, contain, according to the analysis of M. Zierl, in 1000 parts: -

"These, when burnt, yielded to the same chemist sixty parts by weight of ashes, which were composed of -

- Journ. Roy. Agr. Soc, Vol. I. p. 489.

Mr. Cuthbert Johnson, after giving these analyses in his work already quoted, observes further, that, "the faeces of cattle fed principally on turnips have been analysed by M. Einhof; 100 parts evaporated to dryness yielded 28½ parts of solid matter; the 71½ parts lost in drying would consist principally of water and some ammoniacal salts. In half a pound, or 3,840 grains, he found 45 grains of sand; and by diffusing it through water, he obtained about 600 grains of a yellow fibrous matter, resembling that of plants, mixed with a very considerable quantity of slimy matter. By evaporating faeces to dryness, and then burning them, he obtained an ash, which contained, besides the sand, the following substances: -

"The ingredients of which the urine and faeces of cattle are composed, will of course differ slightly in different animals of the same kind, and according to the different food upon which they are fed; but this difference will not in any case be found very material.

"The excrements of the sheep have been examined by Block; according to him, every 100 lbs. of rye-straw given as fodder to sheep yield 40 lbs. of excrements (fluid and solid) ; from 100 lbs. of hay, 42 lbs.; from 100 lbs. of potatoes, 13 lbs.; from 100 lbs.of green clover, 8½ lbs.; and from 100 lbs. of oats, 49 lbs. of dry excrement. The solid excrements of sheep fed on hay, were examined by Zierl; 1,000 parts by weight being burned, yielded 96 parts of ashes, which were found to consist of -

"One hundred parts of the urine of sheep kept at grass, contained-

- Journ. Roy. Agr. Soc.

There have been many arguments and much difference of opinion among cultivators with regard to the advantage of employing dung in a fresh or in a putrid state, and as is too often the case, both parties have run into extremes, the one side contending for the propriety of employing it quite fresh from the farm-yard, the other contending that it cannot well be too rotten.

The mode employed by Lord Leicester, is the medium between these equally erroneous extremes. He found that the employment of the fresh dung certainly made the dung go much farther ; but then a multitude of the seeds of various weeds were carried on to the land along with the manure. He has therefore since used his compost when only in a half putrefied state, (called short dung by farmers,) and hence the seeds are destroyed by the effects of the putrefaction, and the dung still extends much farther than if suffered to remain until quite putrefied. Putrefaction cannot go on without the presence of moisture. Where water is entirely absent, there can be no putrefaction; and hence many farmers have adopted the practice of pumping the drainage of their farm-yards over their dung heaps ; others invariably place them in a low damp situation. This liquid portion cannot be too highly valued by the cultivator. The soil where a dunghill has lain in a field is always distinguished by a rank luxuriance in the succeeding crop, even if the earth beneath, to the depth of six inches, is removed and spread with the dunghill.