The art of making hay does not seem to be understood in the north of Lancashire or in Dumfriesshire any more now, than it was in most parts of Scotland twenty-six years ago. The hay is put into cocks, which are left in the field till the outside, by alternate rain or dew, and sunshine, is burned to a dusty woody matter, and the interior is rendered too dry to undergo the proper degree of fermentation when put in the rick. Indeed, in Scotland the fermentation of hay in the rick did not use to be considered necessary, any more than the fermentation of the liquid food of pigs before giving it to them, or of liquid manure before applying it to the soil. Yet, though the Middlesex very superior mode of making hay does not appear to be yet prevalent in the north, we observed the bad Middlesex practice of dunging the meadows and grass lands with rotten stable dung, and composts of dung and lime, adopted in the park at Lowther Castle, and at several places near Lancaster. Mr. Ogilvie, an extensive Scotch farmer at Mere, near Knutsford, manures his grass land only with liquid manure, fermented in tanks in the Dutch manner, before being carted out; and this we consider to be by far the best, because by far the most economical, mode of manuring grass lands. The practice of forming compost heaps, by mixing quicklime with putrescent manure, or even with soil containing much vegetable matter, is contrary to all science, as was long ago shown by Lord Meadowbank. The lime is rendered much less fit for acting on the soil of the field, than it was when newly taken from the kiln; and the carbon of the dung, or organised matter in the heap, is rendered insoluble in water, and consequently unfit for being taken up by the roots of plants. A reading farmer who forms such composts, has read to very little purpose.
