SEA WEED ASMANURE. (From the Agricultural Gazette.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1378, 26 February 1861, Page 6

SEA WEED ASMANURE. (From the Agricultural Gazette.)

Few things in Agiicultme aie rnoie desirable than a cheap and portable manure of good quality and of home manufacture, which may come m aid of the daily moie precarious supply of genuine guano. Now it strikes us that theie is a peiennial souico of excellent compost, which is at present veiy much neglected except in the immediate neighbourhood of our more locky coasts, the preparation of which would employ an immense number of hands, and might in home measure replace the loss which was sustained some yeais since by so many Highland proprietor, when Kelp was superseded by the rebults of the moie modem chemical discoveries. The peculiarly good quality of the Wheat in the Isle of Thanot, and the feitdity of the soil, haß been long attnbuted to the uso which is made of the seaweed thrown up on the shore. In Lewis's History of Thanet, published in 1723, there is the following passage :—: — "Within those few years past, the inhabitants of the north and east side of the island next the sea have made great use of the Alga or Sea Woor, * winch is often cast up by the sea in great quantities under the cliffs. This the farmers carry on their Maxhills (mauure heaps), t wheie they mix it with their other dung, which it helps to rot. In this mixture they observe no proportion, but endeavour to have one layer of dung and another of Sea Woor, which they turn once or twice in the summer, in oidei perfectly to mix and rot it. But it's observed that the Sea Woor is not so kind for the laud lying near the chalk as for the colder land; and that where the land is very cold, the best way is to carry out the dung rough without laying it in the Maxhill at all. The stench of this weed when fust laid on the Maxhills is very nauseous, but as it is in the open fields is more tolerable." This practice is continued up to the present day, only the seaweed is often put in layers with earth or sand without any admixture of farm manure, and it is from observation of the result of this treatment, when the weed is converted into a rich unctuous mass, that the proposition we shall have to make presently has arisen. This use of sea-weed as a manure is by no means confined to one or two localities ; but its merits are pretty generally recognised, wheiever it is easily aocessible, insomuch that in one of Miss Marfcineau's clever tales, "Ella of Garveloch," the value of the land is in part expressly set down to its vicinity to the seashoie, rendering it capable of fertilization by the ref use weed. We are not aware that any perfect analysis exists of the large seaweeds which abound on the rocky shores of the Hebrides, some of which attain suoh a size as to be almost a fair load for a man. The enor* mous mass furnished .sometimes by a single plant of Laminarin bulbosa for instance, is suoh as to be scarcely credible to persons who have not wandered along those rugged coasts. Of the more generally diffused speoies however, Fucus vesiculosus, there are many" analyses (at least of the ashes when dry), the mean of which as obtained in five localities, the. mouth of the Clyde, the month of the Mersey, the North Sea, Denmark, and Green-land, •is given by Pereira as follows :—: — Potash „ n:96 Soda 12.25 Lime ' , i 0.92 Magnesia 9.53 Chloride of sodium 19.82 lodide of sodium , 0.25 Phosphate of iron and pospliate of lime .6.64 Oxide of iron 0.95 Sulphuric acid ... 24.62 Silica „ ... '[' 4,06 r « , 100 - 00 In Greenland specimens there is as much as 10 per cent, of phosphates. Thero is nearly 17 per cent, of aahes (16.60) on an average in the raw seaweed. Of

the volatile matters wliioh exist in the plant^o have noinformation. It would have been Satisfactory to have obtained an analysis of the stuff yielded by the manure -heaps 'as now prepared in Thanet, but we were unable to .procure proper specimens when in the distriot'in' June, and promises or a supply have not at present yielded any result. > < • j It is, however, clear from what has been stated, that wo have before us the elements of a very usefnl s manure, if it can be prepared in such a manner as toj be reasonably portable) and combining with the salts ' some of the fertilising materials which have beeu vo- j latdisert m the course of incineration. ■ What wo would suggest is that the seaweed after being is possible slightly dried, should be ground into a paste with conical! oilers in the same way in which wood is commonly prepared. The result most probably would be so soft and glutinous, that it could not be readily niado into balls like woad. As however the districts in which the pieparation of such a manure might possibly be profitable, for the most part abound in peat, it might be Ja good piactice to convert some of this into ashes, which might be mixed with the pulp, till of a consistence to be readily made up with the hand into balls, winch might bo exposed to strong drafts of wind on ciateb, under partially closed sheds. How far it might be useful to have rocourso to somewhat of the i>ractice which is exercised mthe prepaiation of woad, and after a time to submit the balls when broken down to fermentation, is a point which must be left to those who are willing to make experiments. The whole matter is thrown out as a mere suggestion, but we are sanguine that in good hands it may lead to very important results. — Mr. J. B.

* From Anglo-Saxon Scßwaui 1 , fiom its waveiiug to cind fro on the top of the water at high tide, t Or Mixeus, as they are now called in the island.

A Doubtful Compliment. — An action was brought in the Bristol County Couit a few days ago to recover the value of two casks of herrings, supplied in 1854, and oa the judge asking the leason for the unusual delay, the plantiff said he had lost eight of the defendant for some time, and when he did find him he could get no settlement. He repeatedly asked defendant for payment, and the latter at length told him to "go to the devil," upon which, the plaintiff said "I thought it was high tune to come to your Honor," — a remark which was received with loais of laughter, m which the learned judge joined. "Volunteer enthusiasm has reached its climax in England, and at Hartlepool a corps of ladies is regu* larly drilled in light infantry tactics by a Govern 3 ment sergeant. Our Yankee women manage the infantry movements without any prelnniuary drill. — New York Journal of Commerce.