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The Country Gcntlcnimis Magazinc 



F ARM-YARD MANURE AND ITS MANAGEMENT: 



WE liave already seen that tlie soluble constituents 

 of farm-yard manure are the most valuable, and 

 that they increase during its fermentation ; hence we 

 should endeavour to prevent their loss, as far as it 

 lies in our power. Now, as this is the case, it is 

 obvious that with proper management we can retain 

 all the valuable fertilizing substances of manure by 

 non-exposure to rain. Therefore any system where 

 manure can be made under cover will be the best, 

 provided the cost of the building and the character of 

 the farm will admit of this being done. In advocat- 

 ing the box system of feeding we have not merely to 

 look to the increased value of the manure made, but 

 in order to make it in such a way that fermentation 

 shall proceed properly (for this cannot be attained by 

 the use of an indiscriminate or superabundant supply 

 of litter), we effect a great saving in straw, are thus 

 able to keep a greater number of stock upon the farm, 

 and consequently return to the land larger quantities, 

 as well as a better quality, of manure than would 

 otherwise be the case. I say this always provided it 

 is considered desirable to use other food besides that 

 grown on the farm, and in so doing a question 

 arises that is not very often sufficiently looked to — 

 viz. , at what jjrice can beef be made per lb. , and can 

 it be produced cheaper by oilcake or meal in con- 

 junction with roots and straw, or l3y roots and straw 

 alone? Now, these certainly will make meat, but the 

 use of cake or corn enables us to do it more rapidly, and 

 also saves the roots very much. Of course, if a man 

 consumes his straw or turnips because the custom of 

 the country won't allow him to do otherwise, he does 

 not consider this point ; but this return alone to the 

 land will not tend to ultimately improve it, except 

 under extraordinary cultivation. Although the feeding 

 of cattle seems rather beside the question we are con- 

 sidering, it bears indirectly upon it, for if we cannot 

 properly reduce our straw into good manure, and on 

 some arable farms, where there is a great excess, with- 

 out high feeding this is difficult to accomplish, it is 

 perhaps a mistake at times not to dispose of it by sale, 

 and return its, or more than its, manurial value ; but 

 provided there is accommodation, and a farmer knows 

 that he can make beef at a profit on artificial food, he 

 can always reduce any amount of straw. I think my- 

 self that the sale of straw cannot be advantageous ex- 

 cept under very exceptional circumstances, such as 

 close proximity to a town, where it may be readily de- 

 livered, and manure returned in its place. An excess, 



'Abstract of paper read before the Wenlock Farmers' Club by 

 Mr Bowen Junes. 



if anywhere, will be found to exist on arable farms, 

 which are often of a light character ; and here, if the 

 whole of the straw is not reduced by feeding cattle, the 

 growth of an intermediate crop, such as vetches, which 

 take a great portion of their food from the air, will 

 enable a farmer to keep his waggon horses in the folds 

 the cattle have occupied the previous winter, to con- 

 sume this crop and make manure, instead of breaking 

 the hedges and damaging the crops of growing cereals, 

 as is so often the case. Whether feeding stock pays 

 directly or not, it is now generally carried out on farms 

 where stock is bred, where it must answer indirectly ; 

 for supposing this store stock was sold, it would 

 be at such a price that a margin \\ould be left for 

 profit in feeding ; thus to the man who rears there 

 must be a profit to feed, or a loss in rearing. 



Some argue that the best way to add an increased 

 value of manure to the land is to get the elements of 

 nutrition in excess in the natural product, by high 

 feeding, even if this excess of manurial value, is 

 counterbalanced by a corresponding loss upon the 

 feeding itself. Superficially you may say that this is 

 as broad as long, as you may as well lay out your 

 money at once in artificial manure ; but here comes 

 the question whether this theory is correct or not, for 

 cannot an excess of straw, where its sale is impracti- 

 cable, thus be properly reduced into a much larger 

 quantity of valuable manure than would otherwise be 

 the case ; and secondly, can the farmer determine 

 what speciality he shall invest his money in, to the 

 same advantage as he derives from the production of 

 a universal manure, which accommodates itself, in the 

 increase of fertility, to every variety of plant and soil 

 imder almost any circumstances. 



ARTIFICIAL FEEDING STUFFS. 



By using assistants in feeding we know we can save 

 a large amount of straw and turnips, and consequently 

 feed to a greater extent ; we find also that we get a 

 veiy superior manure. That this is the cas,e is an im- 

 disputed fact, a ton of oilcake consumed producing 

 about 125 j^ lbs. of phosphoric acid, 50 lb. of potash, 

 and 109 lb. of nitrogen, equal to 132^ lb. of ammonia. 



Those who favour the application of artifical manures 

 would say, by using one ton of best Peruvian guano, 

 at perhaps £2 more cost, and, supposing it to contain 

 18 per cent, of ammonia (which is an extreme calcula- 

 tion), you Vv'ould get 303 lb. of the ammonia as well 

 as other fertilizers, or nearly 2^ times as much as 

 from the ton of cake. They infer then, that supposing 

 oilcake to be worth £il per ton and guano £12,, that 

 £26 worth of oilcake is only equal to ^it, worth of 



