THE CINCINNATUSo 



VOL. I. DECEMBER 1, 1856. NO. 12, 



Itall-Jt^ntinrt niiJr Itrnin* 



Ordinary stall-manure is a varying mixture of animal excrements, 

 urine, and straw-litter. It is strong, in proportion to the urinous 

 liquid it has absorbed ; weak in proportion to the small amount of 

 urine and the large quantities of straw it contains. With these cir- 

 cumstances, also, its greater or less facility of decomposition entirely 

 coincides. Amongst these ingredients, the urine has the greatest 

 tendency to putrefaction and decay, and straw the least; manure 

 rich in urine will, therefore, pass more rapidly into fermentation, 

 and arrive more quickly at what is called " ripeness," than when 

 poor in this constituent. 



Fresh manure is, however, no means of nourishment to plants ; it 

 becomes so only by what is termed fermentation, that is, by a pre- 

 vious ^w^r<yac^io?i and decay. The changes which manure undergoes 

 by these processes of disiniiegration, extend chiefly to its organic or 

 combustible constituents ; inasmuch as these are transformed into a 

 brownish-black, pulverulent mass, (the well known humus,) whilst a 

 part becomes at the same time aeriform, and escapes into the atmos- 

 phere. Coincidently with this, a quantity of water is also evaporated ; 

 and from these two volatilizations it is easily understood why fer- 

 mented manure is of less weight than fresh. If the matter so es- 

 caping was exclusively water, this diminution in bulk and in weight 

 would be advantageous and desirable ; for the farmer would thereby 

 save expense in transportation, as he would employ a dryer manure, 

 and would possess in a load which had lost half its weight by desic- 

 cation, the same fertilizing power that is contained in two equal 

 loads of fresh manure. The true state of matters is, however, wholly 

 diflferent. 



VOL. I., XII. — 36. (561) 



