314 Bacteria in Relat on to Country Life 



Considerable differences in the temperature of the 

 two lots of manure soon became apparent as is shown 

 by the record of observations through the months of 

 February, March, and April. The temperature on the 

 different dates in degrees centigrade is showing in the 

 following table: 



Loosely stored Compacted 



Date manure manure 



February 2 45 7 



February 9 60 4 



February 16 57 3 



February 23 44 S 



March 2 41 11 



March 16 29 11 



March 30 29 19 



April 6 25 18 



April 13 26 21 



April 20 25 20 



April 27 25 19 



The maximum temperature of 60, it will be seen, 

 was reached in the loosely stored manure on February 

 9th, and gradually declined after that during the rest 

 of the period. In the compacted manure, on the other 

 hand, the maximum temperature was not attained 

 until April. Even then it was lower than the minimum 

 temperature recorded for the loosely stored manure. 

 Now, the higher temperature is merely an indication of 

 more rapid combustion, just as the radiation of unequal 

 quantities of heat from two similar stoves is an indica- 

 tion that more fuel is being consumed in one than in 

 the other. 



Careful analyses of samples of manure from the two 

 heaps at the end of twenty-one weeks showed that the 



