76 



Effective Farming 



helps to prevent the loss of nitrogen by fermentation. A roof 

 and sides should be placed over the pit and the whole screened 

 to keep out the flies. This latter is a sanitary measure. Flies 

 breed in manure and the numbers in a season can be greatly 

 reduced by keeping them away from the manure. 



Use of a covered barnyard. The building of a roof over the 

 barnyard and the storing of the manure there is an economical 

 way of handling. The yard should, of course, have an imper- 

 vious bottom to prevent loss from leaching. If the animals 

 are allowed to exercise there, they will tramp the manure and 



FIG. 27. The wrong kind of barnyard. Plant-food and humus are wasted 

 in such yards as this. 



keep it moist, which is an advantage. Frear of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Station found the loss in covered and trampled manure 

 to be nitrogen, 5.7 per cent, phosphoric acid, 8.5 per cent, and 

 potash, 5.5 per cent, and the loss in covered and untrampled 

 manure to be nitrogen, 34.1 per cent, phosphoric acid, 14.2 per 

 cent, and potash 19.8 per cent. The use of a covered barn- 

 yard without an impervious bottom is not advised. Even if 

 the bottom is hard earth, about one- third of the fertility is 

 lost by leaching. In Fig. 27 is shown a common type of barn- 

 yard, a covered barnyard would be much better. 



Allowing manure to accumulate in stalls. In some sections 

 a plan in use is to allow the manure to accumulate in the stalls, 



