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under this, sink a pit for the cistern, into which cast all the acid plants,bitter and rank weeds that come in your way, and grow in the neglectedcorners of your grounds, such as esula, hemlock, docks, thistles, fumitory,tobacco-stalks, wormwood, cabbage leaves and stalks, aconites, the leaves,trash, and offal, such as cattle will not touch ; to these add pigeon andpoultry dung, with their quills and feathers; all sorts of ashes, soot^hogs-hair, horn, bones; also urine, blood, garbage, pickle, brine, sea-water (if conveniently to be had,) otherwise pond-water, to sprinkle itwith and keep it moist to accelerate putrefaction 5 but when all is wellconsumed, forbear the pouring on of insipid liquors, and thus leave it tillit be dry; then air, mingle, and work your composts as you were directedabove, or boil it into petre, casting what you find not well digested intothe cistern again for another year, and, with a little addition, it will giveyou half the quantity of the former, and, provided that you supply themagazine, a continued and farther increase. Indeed this salt and compostis not immediately fit for use, till it be well dulcified and purged from itsover acrimony, therefore mix it well with your mould, and dilute it asyou see cause.. A rece ipt is set down by old Glauber for the effectingof wonderful vegetation, by the afsistance of certain circulatory vefsels toprepare the oily fuccus, and pinguid juice, which that author teaches inhis Miraculum Mitndi , to extract not only out of these materials, but outof turf, wood, and stone itself, by calcining and burning them in close andreverberating furnaces, to which a tube, adapted near the bottom, mayconvey the spirits into a recipient, as he describes the procefs. I mentionthis the rather, for the real effects of which I have been told of this men-struum from very good testimony: And doubtlefs he who were skilled toextract it in quantity, (and to dulcify and qualify it for use) a true spiri-tuous nitre may do abundantly more, in the way of the improvementswe have celebrated, with a small quantity, than with whole loads, nayhundreds or loads of the best and richest of dry composts which we candevise to make'. But besides this, any bouse of ordure, or rancid mould,
, The whole of thi. p.fvige is " * ml “I”"™ mull.pl.otion of the farmer’,
big. -ynd indeed it seems to have been given by our excellent Author rather in con-frmitv'to the philosophy of the times, than from hi, own experience or opinion. The° a-ted receipts of chymists for forwarding the powers of vegetation, are now justly ex-toded, and the present age boasts of a philosophy in farming, that has truth and experi-ment for its foundation. „ - n „