Poultry's Place in a Rotation. 103 



KEETING POULTRY-MANURE. 



To mention briefly how to prepare the droppings in order to 

 avoid loss of fertilizing qualities, it may be stated, that the 

 well-known methods of mixing the droppings with earth or 

 ashes, and keeping them dry, result in a great loss of ammonia, 

 which is generated and carried off by evaporation of moisture, 

 while the large amount of silica (eaten by the fowls as grit) 

 in the droppings, by various chemical changes that occur, form 

 silicates (mostly silicate of lime) which are not only insoluble, 

 but, as is well known, render the droppings as hard as flint. 



As water will always absorb ammonia, there is but little loss 

 of that substance as long as the droppings are damp ; but as 

 decomposition occurs until changes are no longer taking place, 

 unless the conditions are altered, the droppings, when very dry, 

 will have lost their principal value, and perfectly dry earth, 

 mixed with them, serves only to give bulk, unless the whole is 

 compacted or protected from the influence of the air, which 

 brings moisture to be absorbed by the dry dirt, the moisture 

 carrying off any ammonia existing in the droppings whenever 

 it is again evaporated as the air becomes dry. 



The proper method of preserving droppings is to keep them 

 damp (not wet), and they should be collected daily. Mix the 

 droppings with twice their bulk of dry earth, sifted coal-ashes, 

 or dry muck, and keep the mass moist with soap-suds. The 

 soap-suds will form fat-acids, which in turn exert a chemical 

 influence on the whole, forming compounds or salts of various 

 kinds ; but the greatest benefit occurs from the breaking up 

 of some compounds and the forming of others, the reactions 

 being numerous, rendering soluble that which is inert and 

 almost valueless otherwise. 



As practical experience is better than theory, those who will 

 experiment with the use of soap-suds for preserving droppings, 

 and who will keep them moist, not allowing them to become 

 dry, will find that there is a great advantage in the damp 

 method, the presence of ammonia being always perceptible, 

 and the droppings will be ready for use at all times, being of 

 a soft, pasty mass instead of dry, gritty and insoluble. 



