213 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



FARMYARD DUNG: PREPARATION AND APPLICATION. 



No subject in the varied course of agriculture ob- 

 trudes a more general notice, or deserves a more im- 

 portant consideration, than the application of farmyard 

 dung. The article is produced on all lands on which 

 grains grow and animals are kept, and is the most 

 efficacious of all manures that are yet known. It is a 

 mixed body of straws and excrements, urinary and solid, 

 possessing the quick action of the latter substances, and 

 the more durable qualities of the former materials. All 

 other manures are brought from foreign places, and 

 purchased by a ready cost ; farmyard dung is daily pro- 

 duced, and of a constant repetition. The use is varied 

 and of a great value, and the application is no less im- 

 portant. 



Aa approved and long-continued mode of preparing 

 farmyard dung prevails in the celebrated turnip-growing 

 Border counties, of placing the contents of the cattle 

 yards in square piles about six feet in height, in the 

 corner of the fields to be planted with green crops. 

 The yards are concave or dish-shaped, retaining and 

 spreading the moisture equally over the mass, and sup- 

 plied with straws that absorb all the moisture from rains, 

 snows, and urine. The contents are carried out at two 

 different times during winter, and no pressure is allowed 

 on the piles, except the weight of one or two persons to 

 spread the materials evenly and thinly over the heap. 

 In this condition, a fermentation reduces the heap into 

 a saponaceous mass for use in May and June, and in a 

 condition that is easily divided by hand-forks, well 

 moistened, and from which the heat of fermentation has 

 in most cases nearly altogether vanished. Much bulk 

 is lost by this mode of preparation, but it is reckoned the 

 best for the use of green crops. 



Having been educated under the above system of 

 preparing farmyard dung, I practised the mode with 

 the usual success in various parts of the kingdom. In 

 later years I adopted another mode, from the observa- 

 tion of a very large loss of bulk, and from a wish to 

 use a fresher condition of the dung. At any times of 

 convenience during winter, the contents of the yards are 

 carried to the green-crop fields, and laid in aheap slop- 

 ing at both ends, over which the carts pass to deposit 

 the loads, and over which the materials are spread evenly 

 and thinly, in order to mix the substances, and that no 

 part remain in a dry state. The consolidation from 

 the pressure of the carts prevents the fermentation of 

 the hea]), which is formed at convenient times, from 

 November to the month of April, and later when the 

 yards are duly moist and the straws thinly used. Pota- 

 toesare the first- planted green crop ; and about ten days 

 before the dung is required for use, the heap is turned 

 over with forks, laid loosely together, and the lumps well 

 broken, and the dry outside of the heap thrown into 

 the middle of the new aggregation. A very active fer- 

 mentation immediately commences, which is prevailing 

 during the deposition of the dung in the drills, which 

 are immediately reversed and the seed sown. This 

 mode produces fully equal if not superior results to the 

 first-mentioned preparation: it affords a larger bulk, and 

 more convenience in forming the heaps at different times ; 

 while the former requires to be done at one time, or not 

 at distant periods. 



For some considerable time past, I have doubted the 



fermentation of farmyard dung, having had freshly- 

 voided fseces, carried from the cow-shed, laid into drills 

 for turnips, which were a superior crop to the parts of 

 the field treated with fermented dung. This result hap- 

 pened on several occasions, constituting a fact, from a 

 majority of similar results. In order to facilitate the 

 application of fresh dung, I have long ago recommended 

 that all straws for litter should be cut into short lengths 

 by the thrashing machinery, and that the dung be mixed 

 with the prepared turnip-lands by contrary workings of 

 Finlayson's harrow, and raised into ridglets by one 

 furrow of the common plough, in which the seeds are 

 sown by the common two- drill machine, or with a por- 

 tion of bones or guano by Hornsby's drop drill. This 

 practice will supersede the fermenting heap of farmyard 

 dung, and remove the objection of long straws not 

 covering into the ground, by cutting into short lengths. 

 The faeces and short straws will be convenient for 

 Chandler's liquid manure drill, when Mr. Kemp's 

 theory has advanced into a more general notice. 



The application is most excellent of farmyard dung as 

 a top-dressing of young grass seeds ; and for that pur- 

 pose, the fresh, strawy condition is preferable. The 

 crops of clover are largely increased, and also the fol- 

 lowing crops of wheat. I have long ago suggested that 

 the farmyard dung generally applied on bare clay 

 fallows, for wheat, be applied as a top-dressing on the 

 young wheats, in March, by means of moveable timber 

 railways placed on the ground. But, most unfortu- 

 nately, now-a-days, no opinion, theory, idea, or 

 suggestion meets with any notice, except it emanates 

 from a society or a club. Individuals languish in ob- 

 scurity, and are held in insignificance. 



The use of food being to produce caloric to plants and 

 organic bodies, the chief consideration is, how to apply 

 the manures as food for that purpose, and, in order to 

 yield that element in the Ifast expensive manner and 

 most ample quantity. I wholly dissent from chemistry 

 — that rotten dung is more efficacious than fresh dung : 

 weight for weight, and quantity for quantity, the latter 

 must prevail in the abundance. The many statements 

 made, of chemical agencies and transformations,- are of 

 small account. 



With regard to covered and uncovered feeding-stalls, 

 the former may suit in certain places ; but in the ma~ 

 jority of situations, the straw could not be reduced 

 without the rains and snows that fall in the yards ; and, 

 under the covered sheds, the want of moisture produces 

 a dry putrefaction. Even with the present open yards, 

 much difficulty is experienced in reducing the straws 

 into an impregnated condition with rain and urine. 



I have not the pleasure of an acquaintance with Mr. 

 Baker, of Writtle, nor do I know his appearance fronj 

 sight ; but I have ever admired the sound and enlight- 

 ened judgment displayed by him on all practical sub- 

 jects, and the strong sense that he brings to bear on the 

 reveries of cognate auxiliaries. These aids are but 

 puny, shallow, and evanescent ; apt to dazzle and de- 

 ceive, to bewilder and mislead; and often noisy as the 

 tinman's trade. An enlightened practice must lead and 

 confirm. J. D. 



