FARM-YARD MANURE INDISPENSABLE. 29 



not be used on sandy soils, nor is it suited for near-surface uses on 

 any soil. Rotting the manure in plank bins or covered pits which 

 cannot fill with water is accomplished in a few months, if moisture is 

 added to regulate fermentation. If it is allowed to become too dry 

 in a mass it will "burn out" and become almost worthless; if it is too 

 full of water, air will be excluded and decay will be prevented. Manure 

 can be very successfully rotted in open piles on the ground surface, 

 if it is forked over from time to time to equalize the temperature and 

 sprinkled to insure adequate moisture for fermentation. This opera- 

 tion also breaks up the masses and gives a finely comminuted material, ' 

 practically free from offensiveness and available for use on open 

 ground or in potting and propagating operations. Such manure in 

 great quantities is the price of full satisfaction in flower-growing, even 

 if the soil is naturally good; it is indispensable in any effort to make 

 a good growing soil artificially. The enthusiastic amateur comes 

 almost to have affection for good manure the effect of it is so magical. 

 It was a genuine sentiment which caused a flower-loving, suburban 

 amateur to reply to her husband who asked her what gem he should 

 buy her for her ; birthday: "Well, John, if you don't mind, I would 

 rather have you buy two loads of Smith's best manure; it would giye 

 me more pleasure." And undoubtedly this pleasure was realized, for 

 Smith had the knack of rotting manure and delivered a light chocolate- 

 colored, fine grained material which made the plants jump and, as it 

 was in a suburban situation, he was a'ble to get gem-prices for it. 

 Such things the working amateur can do for himself if he keeps a 

 cow as a part of his garden machinery; if not, he must out money 

 in it. 



If it should not 'be practicable to put the manure through the 

 composting process during the dry season, it should be spread out in 

 the corral during the summer and allowed to dry quickly. Manure 

 which is broken up and dried in the sun does not lose fertility; it is 

 only when it is piled and allowed to ferment that important con- 

 stituents are lost. If the corral is cleanly scraped at the beginning of 

 the rainy season it can then be spread for fall covering-under to decay 

 in the soil or it can be piled and watered for composting and it will 

 come into prime condition for use before the end of the rainy season. 



The manure of other farm stock does not serve exactly the same 

 purpose because it has less fibrous materials and does not act upon 

 soil texture in the same way. Animals of more complex diet also 

 produce manure of more concentrated quality, capable of killing plants 

 if used too freely or if too much is collected in one place. Poultry 

 manure, free from earth, contains even as high as four times as much 

 plant food as ordinary stable manure. One way to secure distribution 

 is to thoroughly mix the manure with three or four times its bulk of 

 ordinary garden soil and use this mixture at about the same rate as 



