210 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE, 



management of manure. I have just written that a large propor- 

 tion are devoting more attention to this subject of the preserva- 

 tion of their farm dressing — which is true. Bat we want to see 

 ten manure sheds or cellars where we now see but one ; and every 

 farmer in the county saving and careful of the manurial resources 

 of his estate, where there are now only here and there a few. 

 That manure should be kept under cover, to protect it from the 

 wasting influences of the air, sun, rain, &c., is a fact so evident 

 that all good farmers have some means for its protection by one 

 or the other of the above mentioned arrangements. Unless a 

 ehed or cellar specially adapted for the purpose of sheltering 

 manure is provided, not only much of the value of the solid ex- 

 crements of stock is lost, but all of the liquid portion, which is of 

 equal or more importance than the solid. Dr. Dana, in his valuable 

 treatise,* says that liquid manure contains, as solid dung does, 

 water, mould and salts. The following table from his work, shows 

 the composition of the urine of different animals. The mould is 

 so small a part that its proportion is omitted : 



Water. 



Cattle urine, per 100 lbs., 92.02 



Horse " " " 94.00 



Sheep " " " 96.00 



Hog " " " 92.60 



Human " " " 95.75 



The last column in the above table gives the chief value. 



Dr. Dana, in remarking upon the comparative value of liquid 

 and solid manure, says: — " In the first place, the principle which 

 gives ammonia in urine runs at once, by putrefaction, into that 

 Btate. It gives nothing else; whereas, in dung, the ammonia 

 arises from a slower decay, and the principle which here afibrds 

 ammonia may and without doubt does, from other products. Hence, 

 we have a quick action with the liquid, a slower one with the solid, 

 A second cause of the better efiects of the liquid is, that it con- 

 tains, besides its ammonia, a far greater amount of salts, and these 

 give a more permanent effect. The amount of salts in human, 

 cow and horse dung, is about one pound in every hundred ; while 

 tbe urine of the same animals contains nearly six pounds in every 

 hundred." 



It is not necessary for me to copy further to prove the value of 



* An Essay on Manures : submitted to the Trustees of the Massachusetts Society 

 for Promoting Agriculture, liy Samuel L. Dana, N. Y. Saxton & Co. IbiXi. p. 29. 



