396 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



whereas if muck is not used this very vahuible part is almost entire!}' lost. 

 This imjiortant consideration settles the whole question of the ])rofitableness of 

 composting animal manures. I might again introduce here the ample analysis 

 of agricultural cliemists to show the great value of the liquid excrements 

 of all animals, but that would be unnecessary. Every reading and observ- 

 ing person knows their value, and knowing it, who can tell why farmers do not 

 take measures to save so rich a fertilizer and avoid this large yearly loss? I 

 beg to say to the farmers of St. Joseph county that right here there is an im- 

 mense leak in your business. You feel the want of richer fertilizers and of a 

 larger amount of them. Here you have the very thing — only save it. If the 

 extent of your business operations precludes the employment of the farm force 

 in digging and hauling muck, reduce the area of cultivation for a time and 

 thus be able to appropriate tho necessary labor for the purpose. There is noth- 

 ing in farming better established than that by high culture we may grow as 

 much as wc now do on less laud than is now occupied with crops. 



When yard manure is composted and decomposed, all the really valuable 

 elements of crops, that is, the food which crops require, is ready for immediate 

 use. As soon as the seed puts forth a tendril, the nourishment it needs is at 

 hand and the plant springs into a vigorous young life immediately. But if the 

 manure is used in its raw and rough state, the young and tender rootlets can- 

 not use it. — They must wait for the decomposition to take place which should 

 have been affected in the yard under cover. 



Now let me say a word or two about covering manure to preserve it from the 

 wash of rains and snows, and from drying in sun and wind. We haven't got to 

 this much in practice in this county, but farmers will come to it by and by, 

 there is no doubt of it, for there is proOt in keeping manure under cover. You 

 convince a farmer that there is money in any certain operation, and he will at 

 once test the thing for himself; and when he has tested it and found it right, 

 he never goes back. So I know if the farmers of this county will try covering 

 the barnyard manure once, they will not leave any more exposed to the 

 weather. I was reading, a short time since, an extract from an English paper 

 giving an account of tho covering in of the entire barnyards on a large estate 

 in England. The cost was about |^5,0U0, the owner advancing $4,000 and the 

 tenant §1,000. Such an expenditure for this purpose was never known in this 

 country. Indeed, even cheap shelter for the manure thrown from the stables 

 is extremely uncommon. I once visited the farm of a well known wheat grower 

 and model farmer in Oakland county, Mr. Linus Cone. This was in August, 

 and he took me to his stables to see some manure which he was bavins: hauled 

 out on a barley stubble to be plowed under for wheat. He had been feeding 

 some steers the winter before in box-stalls about six feet by ten, and the man- 

 ure was still in the stalls without floors. The men were cutting it out with 

 sharj) spades, four inches thick at a cut. It was about a foot deep. Mr. Cone 

 calculated that one load of that manure was worth three loads of common barn- 

 yard manure which had been exjjosed tlirough the season, and I could not ques- 

 tion the value lie put upon it. No portion of the salts had been washed out, 

 and fermentation had been very gradual, apparently, so that there had been no 

 loss and all the ingredients of the manure were there. He was spreading it 

 very thinly and it went a long way — it was very rich. 



It is apparent to every observer that a largo portion of the excrements of ani- 

 mals on the farms of tiiis county is lost, so far as the enriching of the soil is 

 concerned. That of pig-?, sheep and poultry in particular, is of little practical 



