DUN 



206 



DUN 



hended from the desirable employment 

 of this manure in the freshest state ; 

 for otherwise the loss of its most valu- 

 able constituents commences as soon as 

 fermentation begins. This was long 

 since demonstrated by Davy, whose 

 experiments I have often seen repeated 

 and varied. He says, " I filled a large 

 retort capable of containing three pints 

 of water with some hot fermenting 

 manure, consisting principally of the 

 litter and dung of cattle. I adapted a 

 small receiver to the retort, and con- 

 nected the whole with a mercurial 

 pneumatic apparatus, so as to collect 

 the condensible and elastic fluids which 

 might arise from the dung. The re- 

 ceiver soon became lined with dew, 

 and drops began in a few hours to 

 trickle down the sides of it. Elastic 

 fluid likewise was generated ; in three 

 days thirty-five cubical inches h&d been 

 formed, which when analyzed were 

 found to contain twenty-one cubical 

 inches of carbonic acid ; the remainder 

 was hydro-carburet, mixed with some 

 azote, probably no more than existed 

 in the common air in the receiver. 

 The fluid matter collected in the re- 

 ceiver at the same time amounted to 

 nearly half an ounce. It had a saline 

 taste and a disagreeable smell, and con- 

 tained some acetate and carbonate of 

 ammonia. Finding such products given 

 off from fermenting litter, I introduced 

 the beak of another retort filled with 

 similar dung very hot at the time, in the 

 soil amongst the roots of some grass in 

 the border of a garden. In less than a 

 week a very discernible effect was pro- 

 duced on the grass, upon the spot ex- 

 posed to the influence of the matter 

 disengaged in fermentation ; it grew 

 M'ith much more luxuriance than the 

 grass in any other part of the gar- 

 den." — Lectures. 



Nothing, indeed, appears at first sight 

 so simple as the manufacture and col- 

 lection of farm yard dung, and yet there 

 are endless sources of error into which 

 the cultivator is sure to fall, if he is not 

 ever vigilant in their management. The 

 late Mr. Francis Blake, in his valuable 

 tract upon the management of farm- 

 yard manure, dwells upon several of 

 these; he particularly condemns the 

 practice of keeping the dung arising 

 from different descriptions of animals 

 in separate heaps or departments, and 

 applying them to the land without inter- 



mixture. " It is customary," he adds, 

 " to keep the fattening neat cattle in 

 yards by themselves, and the manure 

 thus produced is of good quality, be- 

 cause the excrement of such cattle is 

 richer than that of lean ones. Fattening 

 cattle are fed with oil cake, corn, 

 Swedish turnips, or some other food, 

 and the refuse and waste of such food 

 thrown about the yard increases the 

 value; it also attracts the pigs to the 

 yard. These rout the straw and dung 

 about in search of grains of corn, bits of 

 Swedish turnips, and other food ; by 

 which means the manure in the yard 

 becomes more intimately mixed, and is 

 proportionally increased in value. The 

 feeding troughs and cribs in the yard 

 should for obvious reasons be shifted 

 frequently. 



" The horse-dung," continues Blake, 

 " is usually thrown out at the stable 

 doors, and there accumulates in large 

 heaps. It is sometimes spread a little 

 about, but more generally not at all, 

 unless where necessary for the conve- 

 nience of ingress and egress, or perhaps 

 to allow the water to drain away from 

 the stable door. Horse-dung lying in 

 heaps very soon ferments and heats to 

 an excess, the centre of the heap is 

 charred or burned to a dry white sub- 

 stance, provincially termed fire-fanged. 

 Dung in this state loses from fifty to 

 seventy-five per cent, of its value. The 

 diligent and attentive farmer will guard 

 against such profligate waste of property 

 by never allowing the dung to accumu- 

 late in any considerable quantity at the 

 stable doors. The dung from the feed- 

 ing hog-sties should also be carted and 

 spread about the store cattle yard in 

 the same manner as the horse-dung. 



" The heat produced by the ferment- 

 ation of the dung of different animals 

 has been made the subject of repeated 

 experiment. When the temperature of 

 the air was 40^, that of common farm- 

 yard dung was 70^; a mixture of lime, 

 dung, and earth, 55=> ; swine and fowl's 

 dung, 85°." — Farmer's Magazine, 

 Johnson^s Fertilizers. 



" The quality of farm-yard compost 

 naturally varies with the food of the 

 animals by which it is made : that from 

 the cattle of the straw-yard is decidedly 

 the poorest, that from those fed on oil- 

 cake, corn, or Swedes, the richest. Of 

 stable dung, that from corn-fed horses 

 is most powerful, from those subsisting 



