-98 CHAPTER VI 



Pen Manure. — In those countries which employ animal traction very 

 large numbers of cattle and mules are kept for transport purposes, and large 

 quantities of pen manure are produced annually, and it is remunerative to 

 stall the cattle at night with sufficient litter, such as dry cane trash, to absorb 

 their urine. In Mauritius and the British West Indies great attention is 

 paid to this source of manure. The method adopted in Mauritius is as 

 follows : — 



The live stock of the estate, which may number from two to three hundred, 

 are in great part kept in " pares," which may be from fifty to a hundred 

 vards square ; a portion of the pare is often covered in to provide shelter 

 in inclement weather. The whole area is covered with cane trash transported 

 from the fields and used as bedding. During the whole year if the supply 

 of labour is sufficient, the soiled litter is in a continual process of renewal 

 and removal, the bedding being replaced throughout on an average once a 

 week ; on removal it is placed on stone platforms or in basins ten feet deep, 

 both platforms and basins generally being about fifty feet square. The whole 

 mass when completed is continually watered with fermented molasses and 

 water or distillery refuse, and sometimes with dilute sulphuric acid ; the 

 drainings collect in stone pits and are continually repumped over the heap 

 of manure ; the object of this is to rot the manure and at the same time 

 to fix any volatile ammonia given off. In from six to twelve months the 

 manure is considered sufficiently rotten to place on the fields, where it is 

 applied at the rate of from ten to twenty tons per acre to plant canes only, 

 generally at an age of three months ; or occasionally the cane holes are filled 

 with the manure and the tops planted on it. 



The amount of manure made per animal per \'ear is from fifteen to twenty 

 tons where bedding i? used, and, where the dry dung onl}^ is collected, from 

 two to three tons. 



With the introduction of mechanical traction the quantity of pen manure 

 available has decreased. At first sight it would appear to be false economy 

 to attempt to force the production of manure by bringing in more material 

 than is necessary to absorb the urine and to contribute to the comfort of 

 the animal as bedding. Watts^^, however, advised a contrary procedure, 

 and is inclined to believe that the raw material rotted by the action of bacteria 

 becomes much more efficacious. 



The composition of the manure varies within considerable limits ; where 

 a reasonable amount of bedding has been used, the percentage of nitrogen 

 generally, in the writer's experience, lies between 0'6 and 0"8 per cent., 

 falling to 0-3 to 0-5 per cent, where an excess of trash has been brought 

 to the stables or pens ; the potash and phosphoric acid do not seem to show 

 any variation dependent on the amount of bedding used, both lying between 

 the values 0*2 to 0-7 per cent, ; these figures refer to manure with from 

 70 to 80 per cent, of moisture. 



The expense of making pen manure is very considerable ; the cost in 

 Mauritius before the Great War varied from two to five shillings per ton, 

 a portion of which expense would be incurred in any case ; the carting and 

 application cost about one shilling per ton, making the total outlay from three 

 to six shillings per ton. Pen manure is almost exclusively applied to the 

 plant crop. In Mauritius the holes in which the canes are planted are some- 

 times filled with material, and otherwise it may be distributed round the base 

 of the stools of cane when a few months old. In other districts where 

 mechanical tillage is in operation, pen manure and similar material is broad- 



