1802.] Manufaëures and Uſeful Arts Zz

earth, or of dung, vegetables, lime, or marle, and peat-earth; over each ſtratum or layer of. theſe miterials two or three feet in thickneſs, pour ſome barrels of ſea-water, ſuch as may be ſafficient thoroughly to moiſten it; immediately after pouring the ſea-water, lay over it a freſh ſtra- tum of dung or compoſt; and continue this praêtice, till within a week or two of the time when you are to carry your manure to the field.“The files of every heap of dung or turf ſhould be carefully covered up with turfs«- Manure of all ſorts ſhould be plowed down as ſoon as pollible after it is carried out and[préad on the fields,

Lord SoMERVILLE?s recommendation of the Portugueſe method of kil- ling oxen and cattle of all ſorts by piercing one-of the junétions of the vertebræy, is now very generally adopted by the butchers of the country. And it is a method of ſlaughter ſo much more humane and ſo much eaßer than that which it ſuperſedes, that the introdu&ion of it, however eaſy that may have been, muſt ever do infinite honour to this patriotic nobleman.

His Lorſhip has more recently accompliſhed the invention of a double furrow plough of the greateſt utility in certain operations of agriculture.

There âre, in Norway, no fewer than ſix different: provincial Societies for the improvement of rural œconomy and of the uſeful arts. Five‘of theſe were inſtituted before the year 1778. That of the lateſt inſtitution had its origin in 1787. Tn aſfociation for œcumenical improvements, therefore, one af the rudeſt countries| in Europe, appears to have anticipated the career of this ſort of improvement in Great Britain. Ñ

The moſt populous manutfaßuring and commercial county in England, is that in which potatoes have been the longeſt and the moſt extenfively cul- tivated. About 40 years fince, the culture of potatoes was very confider- able round Liverpool. It‘extended itſelf every year, more and more through- out Lancaſhire. The ſucceſs of the diferent branches of induſtry now flouriſhing in that county has originated very much in the abundance which it poſſeſſes of potatoes for the ſubſiſtence of the labourer.

The greateſt ſecret în the culture of pctatoes, after their ſhoots have riſen above the gronnd, conſiſts in keeping them free from weeds, and preſerving the earth Joſe, moiſt, and frefb, about the roots and under part of the ſtalk. You can ſcarce weed the drills too vigilantly, or move the earth too often with the plough or the hoe. One extra plowing of the earth towards the plants in the middle of the drill, and one extra plowing of the earth in alternation, from the middle of the drill, have been known, by the perſon who writes this, to make the crop one third greater than in adjacent fields, where theſe extra plowings were not uſed,

SCEE SRP” tE zO

Manufactures and Useful Arts.

ON THE LIFE BOAT. Te the Editor of the Commercial and Agricultural Magazine. SIR,

I AM happy to ſe by the public papers, that the invention of Life Boats,

to preſerve mariners from ſhipwreck, ſcems to meet the approbation and encouragement of ſeveral members in the Houſe of Commons. Indeed, I have been much ſurpriſed that an invention of“ ſuch public utility(more tſpecially to the firlt commercial nation in the world,). ſhould remain ſo long unrewarded.

How far the claims of the perſon may be allowed, who lately preſented a petition to Parliament for a pnblic remuneration for his diſcovery is at pre- ſent unknown; but, to me, I confefs it apperrs rather improbable that it ſhould poſſeſs either novelty or originality of invention.- I am not led foto this opinion haſtily, as T perte&ly well remember that a patent was taken out fo long ago as the year 1785, by a Mr. Lionel Lvkin, cf Long-

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