469 



MANUBE. 



MANURE. 



farmers, but not always strictly attended to. It is better to manure 

 slightly and often than to put on a large quantity at once, except for 

 some particular crops, which require a rich earth and consume much 

 manure, such as potatoes, mangold-wurzel, and Swedish turnips. Any 

 one who has raised the above-mentioned roots with the usual manuring, 

 and drawn them off the land to be consumed elsewhere, will acknow- 

 ledge that his subsequent corn was far inferior to that which, had 

 succeeded beans, tares, or clover, with the same quantity of manure. 



One chief use of cattle on an arable farm , besides those which are 

 necessary for the operations of husbandry, is to produce manure for 

 the l.ind. In present times of high priced butcher's meat, cattle will 

 more than repay their food and the expense and risk attending their 

 keep. But eveu though there were a moderate loss, they must be 

 kept, when manure cannot be purchased ; and a portion of the land 

 must be cultivated solely for the maintenance of cattle. In some 

 poor soils one-half of the land is not too much to produce manure 

 sufficient for the other half. The loss, if any, on the cattle must be 

 repaid by the increase of the corn crops. Manure is to a farm what 

 daily food is to an animal ; it must be procured at any sacrifice. It is 

 better to let land remain uncultivated in rough pasture, as was once 

 the case with a great part of Britain . and is still the case with extensive 

 tracts on the Continent, than to break it up without having the means 

 of manuring it. A few crops may be obtained at first, but the land is 

 deteriorated for ever after, and what has been obtained from it is dearly 

 paid for. 



Various means have been adopted to increase the quantity and 

 efficacy of manure. The simplest is to increase the number of cattle, 

 and husband their manure. It is evident that to let cattle run in loose 

 pastures is a great loss, not only on account of the dung which is 

 dropped, and more than lost, but also the urine, which contains the 

 very e.ssence of manure. In all countries where- stall-feeding is practised, 

 the lands are highly manured, and the crops more certain and abun- 

 dant. With this system ia connected a much more economical manage- 

 ment of the manure, either by keeping the litter and more solid parts 

 of the dung separate from the urine and liquid parts, which are col- 

 lected in large reservoirs, and used in the liquid state, or by letting 

 the animal remain loose in a pen or box, into which litter is daily put, 

 no that it accumulates under the animal and absorbs the whole of the 

 solid and liquid excrement. The liquid manure system is not gaining 

 ground in farm practice, and it seems to be generally allowed that the 

 best mode of saving it is in the litter of box-fed cattle ; the dung thus 

 formed containing the whole of it, in a form to which the ordinary 

 e of the farm is already adapted. A word or two must never- 

 thele.-s \>f Mill on the uses of liquid manure. 



Notwithstanding some apparently contradictory opinions, it is pretty 

 generally acknowledged by those who have had long experience of its 

 use, that urine and similar animal substances have a more powerful 

 effect on the soil, when they have undergone a certain degree of putre- 

 faction, than when they are used in a fresh state, and that this is 

 produced with the least loss of substance when the liquid has been 

 confined in close vaulted cisterns which admit the external air only 

 ]<artially. On light soils this liquid has a most fertilising effect, if it 

 a used frequently in small portions at a time. On very heavy soils 

 this effect is not so apparent, and for such soils the liquid ia accordingly 

 mixed with sand or any light earth before it is applied ; or, instead of 

 using it at once upon the land, it U poured over the litter, which has 

 been collected in a heap or in a yard, after having served for the cattle. 

 This litter, having been deprived of the urine which would otherwise 

 have mixed with it, would rot very slowly and produce a very inferior 

 kind of manure, unless it were moistened, and fermentation were 

 excited by pouring the half-putrefied urine over it. It may be objected 

 that if the urine is only collected to moisten the straw which has 

 served as litter, it would be as well to let it be mixed at first, without 

 the trouble of pumping it up and the expense of a cistern to hold it. 

 But we shall soon see that there is a very wide difference. In the 

 common mode of collecting farm-yard dung, the straw is very un- 

 equally impregnated with animal matter : at one time it will contain a 

 large portion and run rapidly into fermentation ; at another, there will 

 be so little, that it is with difficulty that heat is excited in it. By 

 separating th-j urine and littx-r, the straw will go much further, and 

 '1 with the urine at the most advantageous time ; thus it 

 forms a much richer manure in a smaller compass, from not being so 

 much diluted with water. Should there be a deficiency of straw, 

 earth or sand will supply its place, in as far as soaking up the rich 

 juices; for the addition to the manure from the decomposition of the 

 straw itself is very small in proportion to that which animal juicea 

 alt'urd. If the liquid is collected frogi a stable or a yard where cattle 

 are kept as soon as it is produced, and is carried 6ff into a cistern, 

 will be a much better and drier bed left for the cattle, especially 

 if tin: ram l>e kept off by light shades. When the litter is soiled to a 

 certain degree, it may be removed to a heap in a proper place, where 

 its conversion into rich dung may be effected by the addition of putre- 

 fying urine, than which nothing will so soon rot vegetable fibres, if the 

 air be admitted to the heap. The portion which is not wanted for 

 inn; may be left to MMBptM more slowly; and as the time 

 . In'S wln:ii it is wanted for the land, it may be managed so as to 

 be in that state which experience baa shown to be most effective in 

 the improvement of the crops. 



There is some appearance of certainty and regularity in this mode 

 of making a dunghill, which there scarcely is in the common practice 

 of accumulating straw, dung, and urine without any regularity in a 

 farm-yard, turning it over when the cattle leave it for the pastures, 

 and carrying so many cart-loads per acre on the land to be manured, 

 without any measure of its comparative strength. One portion is 

 often almost burnt black, and another appears like the fresh litter of 

 the stabler, not being even thoroughly soaked with moisture. It is 

 true that good farmers pay more attention to their dung-heaps, and 

 endeavour to carry out the manure in a proper stite ; but how much 

 more readily would this be accomplished by the help of a large cistern 

 full of the richest animal matter in a state of partial putrefaction. 

 In situations where straw bears a high price, it may be doubtful 

 whether a cistern might not permit a considerable profit to be made 

 by the sale of a portion of the straw, without any diminution of the 

 manure required for the farm, since for light soils the liquid might be 

 used alone, and for stiffer soils it might be mixed into a compost with 

 earth, chalk, and any kind of refuse vegetable matter of less value than 

 straw. It was an opinion expressed by a celebrated agriculturist * to 

 the late Mr. Rham, that he considered the use of straw in dung to be 

 merely as a sponge to hold the liquid animal matter in its pores or 

 tubes. In fact, straw or old thatch merely rotten by long exposure to 

 air and moisture is of little or no value as a manure, although it will 

 sometimes produce good potatoes, by rendering a stiff soil pervious and 

 porous ; but, in a light soil, a gallon of urine is worth ten times its 

 weight of rotten straw. This doctrine may appear strange to some 

 agriculturists, but it will bear the test of experiment. 



It is well to add here the conclusion to which Dr. Volcker's re- 

 searches into the composition and management of yard manure have 

 led him. We extract them in an abridged form from his papers in the 

 'Journal of the Agricultural Society." 



" Perfectly fresh farm-yard manure contains but a small proportion 

 of free ammonia. 



" The nitrogen in fresh dung exists principally in the state of 

 insoluble nitrogenised matters. 



"The soluble organic and mineral constituents of dung are much 

 more valuable fertilisers than the insoluble. Particular care, therefore, 

 should be bestowed upon the preservation of the liquid excrements of 

 animals, and for the same reason, the manure should be kept in per- 

 fectly waterproof pits, of sufficient capacity to render the setting up of 

 dung-heaps in the corner of fields, as much. as it is possible, unnecessary. 

 Farm-yard manure, even in quite a fresh state, contains phosphate of 

 lime, which is much more soluble than lias hitherto been suspected. 

 The urine of the horse, cow, and pig, does not contain any appreciable 

 quantity of phosphate of lime, whilst the drainings of dung-heaps con- 

 tain considerable quantities of this valuable fertiliser. The drainings 

 of dung-heaps, partly for this reason, are more valuable than the urine 

 of our domestic animals, and therefore ought to be prevented by all 

 available means from running to waste. 



" The most effectual means of preventing loss in fertilising matters is 

 to cart the manure directly on the field whenever circumstances allow 

 this to be done. 



" On all soils with a moderate proportion of clay, no fear need be 

 entertained of valuable fertilising substances becoming wasted if 

 the manure cannot be ploughed in at once. Fresh, and even well- 

 rotten dung contains very little free ammonia; and since active fer- 

 mentation, and with it the further evolution of free ammonia, is stopped 

 by spreading out the manure on the field, valuable volatile manuring 

 matters cannot escape into the air by adopting this plan. As all 

 soils with a moderate proportion of clay possess in a remarkable degree 

 the power of absorbing and retaining manuring matters, none of the 

 saline and soluble organic constituents are thus wasted, even by a 

 heavy fall of rain. It may, indeed, be questioned, whether it is more 

 advisable to plough in the manure at once, or to let it lie for some time 

 on the surface, and so give the rain full opportunity to wash it into the 

 soil. 



" It appears to me a matter of the greatest importance to regulate the 

 application of manure to our fields, so that its constituents may become 

 properly diluted and uniformly distributed amongst a large mass of, 

 soil. By ploughing in the manure at once, r it appears to me, this 

 desirable end cannot be reached so perfectly as by allowing the rain to 

 wash in gradually the manure evenly spread on. the surface of the 

 field." 



Among other conclusions regarding the common management of 

 dung heaps to which Dr. Volcker leads us, are the following : During 

 the fermentation of dung, the phosphate of lime which it contains ia 

 rendered more soluble than in fresh manure. In the interior and 

 heated portions of manure-heaps, ammonia is given off; but, on passing 

 into the external and colder layers of dung-heaps, the free ammonia 

 is retained in the heap. 



Ammonia is not given off from the surface of well compressed dung- 

 heaps, but on turning manure-heaps it is wasted in appreciable quanti- 

 ties. Dung-heaps, for this reason, should not be turned more fre- 

 quently than absolutely necessary. 



If rain is excluded from dung-heaps, or little rain falls at a time, the 

 loss in ammonia is trifling, and no saline matters of course ure re- 



Mr. De Fcllcnbcrg, of Hofwyl, near Bern, in Switzerland. 



