320 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



MANURE HEAPS. 



Farm-yard dung is composed of the straws of grain 

 crops which are used for littering the animals of the 

 farm, and mixed with solid and urinary excrements 

 that are voided by the horses, cattle, and swine, that 

 are reared and fattened. The urine contains elements 

 that are :juick of action, and of stimulant powers : 

 the solid foeces are earthy in their composition, being 

 the debris of the food consumed ; while the straws in 

 the litter yield by decomposition in the soil an earthy 

 residuum which adds to the staple of the land. Hence 

 the great value of the compound article as a manure 

 in quick matters over more durable substances, and in 

 the gradual decomposition of earthy strawsforfutute use. 



Urine contains many component parts — about 915 

 of water in 1,000 parts, 20 of urea, 18 of lactic acid, 

 lactate of potash, and ammonia, 20 of hippurate of 

 potash, 2 of sulphate of potash and soda, 4 of car- 

 bonate of magnesia, some chloride of sodium and car- 

 bonate of lime. Solid excrements in 100 parts contain 

 63 of silica and sand, 10 of phosphate of lime and 

 magnesia, 10 of potash, 5 of magnesia, 1 of lime, with 

 traces of other matters. The action as a manure de- 

 pends on the mineral ingredients. Urea, the principal 

 organic ingredient, is the most nitrogenous body found 

 in the animal organism. During putrefaction it is 

 converted into carbonate of ammonia, which being a 

 highly volatile body, escapes by exposure to the air. 

 Gypsum prevents this loss, by forming sulphate of 

 ammonia, which is not volatile at ordinary tempera- 

 tures. Nutrition being accompanied with combustion 

 from decomposition of food, the solid excrements re- 

 present the incombustible ashes, and the unconsumed 

 organic matters of the food mixed with them. The 

 more soluble organic and inorganic ingredients or pro- 

 ducts of change are found in the urine, while the in- 

 soluble substances appear in the faeces. The alkaline 

 salts characterise the urine, the earthy salts the faeces. 

 Both excrements diflPer much according to the kind of 

 food, and the condition of the body that consumes it. 

 Urine contains the soluble mineral substances, in ad- 

 dition to the nitrogenous or ammonia-forming ingre- 

 dients in urea, uric and hippuric acids. The straws of 

 the cereal crops contain about CO per cent, of silico- 

 earthy phosphates and carbonates, with soluble salts. 

 The haulm of peas and vetches contains more of soluble 

 salts and of carbonates, and a greater appearance of 

 metallic oxides. The earthy matters enter into combi- 

 nation with the animal and more easily soluble ingre- 

 dients, retard the too rapid putrefaction, and confer 

 the lasting quality on farm-yard dung as a manure. 



la order that farm-yard dung may be formed 

 into a manure of the best and a superior quality, 

 the yards in which the straws and excrements are 

 placed must be made into shapes that allow 

 the proper mixture of the different luatters 

 that are assembled. The moisture must ispread 



equally over every part of the yard, which is best done 

 by the bottom forming a concavity in the centre, or 

 what is called dish or bason-shaped, when the moisture 

 being gathered into the middle, will rise in a level over 

 the mass that overlies it, and is imiformly diffused, till 

 the superabundance escapes by the gateway into a 

 covered drain, leading to a tank. But the most proper 

 management absorbs the liquid with straws, which is 

 the most beneficial application of liquid manure, after 

 all that has been spoken and written on the subject. 

 The surface of the yai'ds must be kept level, regularly 

 and thinly covered with litter, the straw racks often 

 shifted, and every care used to procure an equal niix- 

 ture of the straws and excrements. It is advantageous 

 that store pigs have liberty to frequent the yards, as in 

 searching for grains and remnants of turnips the ani- 

 mals move and turn over the heap, and promote a 

 beneficial mixture. It is essential that no dry matters 

 remain in that condition, but are impregnated with 

 moisture, and mixed with excrements. 



The yard, which receives from the stable the strawy 

 litter and dry warm dung of the horses, should be con- 

 verted into a nursery for young swine, where the ani- 

 mals are fed during winter with turnips and potatoes, 

 and in summer with clovers and vetches. The warm 

 and dry dung of the horses is to be evenly and thinly 

 spread over the surface of the yard on each morning as 

 the excrements are carried from the stable : the pigs 

 move it about in search of grains, and deposit their 

 saponaceous excrement, which prevents the heating or 

 " fire-fangiug" of the stable dung: the eating of roots 

 and esculents leaves a filth which benefits the mix- 

 ture, and is further improved by a portion of young 

 cattle living in the yard. The mixture is threefold, of 

 the horse, cattle, and swine, and the mass becomes a 

 most valuable compost. The pig is fond of warmth, 

 and finds a most congenial bed among the warm dung 

 of the stable, which the animal uses for its own benefit, 

 and converts into a valuable article. It is essen- 

 tial to the quality of farm-yard dung that the prepara- 

 tion bo managed in the proper and necessary mixture 

 in the yards — of dry and moist substances, solid and 

 urinary faeces, and of the excrements of different ani- 

 mals : of horses with dung of swine, and of cattle with 

 all. The future application becomes doubly promoted 

 in the benefit by this arrangement. 



The winter provision for fattening and store animals 

 is generally arranged by the end of October, and the 

 yards will be filled with dung In January, during which 

 month the contents are carried to heaps in the fields 

 that are intended to be planted with green crops. 

 Ou the headland of the field near to the gate- 

 way, a site is marked in a long square form, 

 about six yards in width, or more, as the size of the 

 field may require a quantity of dung. The bottom is 

 strewed with strawy dung, in order to bear the cartage, 



