MANURE— ITS TREATMENT AND VALUE. 273 



building M'ould be required for storing feed, cutting machine, etc. One of the 

 best and largest feed-cutters in the market can be bought for $G5. A four- 

 horse-sweep power will cost new from $40 to $75. "We are using a root pulper 

 that I built myself with the help of a blacksmith, that cost me $12 besides my 

 own labor, and it will grind fifty bushels of ruta bagas or beets an hour "with 

 three horses. 



At present we are using an old threshing-machine horse power, but expect 

 soon to put up an engine. We have tried several farm mills for doing our own 

 grinding, but have found none that were profitable to use with horse power. 



THE PROFIT OF SHEEP. 



Not being in a sheep country, and not having given the matter much study, 

 I cannot speak in regard to their value as producers of manure. In some 

 parts of our Sta'e they may be more profitable than either cattle or pigs. 



A COMMON" PRACTICE. 



Many farmers clean out their stables and pile the manure up against the side 

 of the barn from fall till spring. The manure ferments or heats, and, when the 

 spring rains come, the water from the eaves falls on the pile and the greater 

 part of all that was valuable passes off in gas, or is leached out iiud carried off 

 into the nearest ditch. When drawn out in the spring, the manure is worth 

 little more than a jag of wet straw. 



LOCATION OF BARNYARD. 



I have known men who were considered good farmers who have built a splen- 

 did barn with arrangements for keeping considerable stock, and make their 

 barnyard on a slope or side hill, so that not only the rains from the roof, but 

 even water from land back of the yard, during heavy rains, would wash out the 

 manure, carrying it off into a creek or ditch below. A barnyard should be on 

 level ground that is higher than the surrounding fields, if possible, so that 

 water will never run into the yard. There should be no open ditches coming 

 into the yard, nor near enough for the wash of the yard to run off in. A few 

 rods of tile drains put in ditches near the yard would obviate this difnculty. 

 Tile drains should also be put around the yard and through it, if necessary, 

 sufficient to keep it dry. 



WATER I]S" BARXYARD. 



There are times when a barnyard will get flooded with water. This water 

 will take up a certain portion of the strength of the manure, and if it runs off 

 into a ditch it is a total loss, while if it runs off on to a cultivated field or grass 

 lot, or, better yet, on to some material that will absorb it, a large portion of it 

 might be saved. 



HOW WE TREATED OUR BARiTYARD. 



Having a yard that had been dug down until it was lower than the sur- 

 rounding land, and having been obliged to let the water off several times 

 through a tile drain, losing a large quantity of manure thereby, we last sum- 

 mer carted, enough sand and clay into the yard to raise it two feet, and ar- 

 ranged it so that the waste would run off on to a low piece of ground near the 

 yard; this low spot was thoroughly tile-drained, and over it we have spread a 

 thick coating of muck. We propose to draw this muck out every year and put 

 it on the compost heap, drawing in more to take its place. If I were going to 

 put my barns on a new place, I would, first locate the yard with reference to 

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