ARTIFICIAL MANURES 11 



General Directions for the Preparation of Artificial Manures 



Materials That May Be Used 



Any non-woody plant material may be used in the preparation of artificial 

 manure, such as leaves, weeds, straw, corn stover, garden and cannery refuse, 

 lawn clippings, and even kitchen garbage if the greasy portions are disposed of 

 in some other manner. 



The manure pile may be made outdoors. A shallow pit about a foot deep can 

 be used to advantage, but any level place will be satisfactory. Since the pile is 

 not attractive, it should be placed in some inconspicuous spot and should be pro- 

 tected from the wind. 



Small-Scale Preparation 



Home gardeners who are going to prepare artificial manure on a small scale 

 from the various refuse materials which they are able to collect throughout the 

 spring, summer, and fall seasons may find it more convenient to use a ready- 

 mixed commercial fertilizer. Any garden fertilizer, such as a 6-8-6 or 5-8-7 fertil- 

 izer, will be satisfactory and 100 pounds will be sufficient to make a pile of approx- 

 imately' 125 cubic feet, or a pile having dimensions of 5 feet by 5 feet by 5 feet. 

 If higher grade fertilizers are used, the amount used should be proportional. 



About 25 pounds of ground limestone can be used to advantage with each 100 

 pounds of fertilizer to produce a better end product and to insure against loss of 

 plant nutrients (nitrogen) during the process of decomposition. 



The pile should be built in layers, with a few handfuls of the fertilizer scat- 

 tered on each new supply of organic material that is added. One or two shovel- 

 fuls of garden soil sprinkled on each layer will aid in inoculating the pile with the 

 necessary decomposition bacteria. If the organic material is dry, it should be 

 dampened with enough water to wet it well but not enough to leach out of the 

 bottom of the pile. If the materials are green, such as grass clippings, no water 

 need by added. During a dry season when rainfall is not sufficient to keep the 

 pile fairly moist, hand watering of the pile will be necessary to produce natural 

 decay. Shoveling the material from one pile to another two or three times during 

 the season will tend to hasten decay and give a better decomposition. 



The artificial manure is ready for use when decomposition has stopped and 

 the plant material has lost its original structure or characteristics. Tree leaves^ 

 used alone, usually take a longer time to decompose and may retain their general 

 outline, which, however, crumbles easily when handled. 



Large-Scale Preparation 



In general, the same procedure as outlined above is followed in the preparation 

 of larger quantities of manure. The method differs mainly in more economical 

 use of chemicals to aid the decomposition and in the fact that the whole pile is 

 usually built at one time. 



The raw materials needed are: one ton of any of the organic materials previously 

 mentioned, 75 to 80 pounds of Cyanamid or ammonium sulfate or its equivalent 

 from any other source of readily available nitrogen, about 70 pounds of super- 

 phosphate (16 percent), 25 pounds of muriate of potash, and 75 to 80 pounds of 

 ground limestone. If Cyanamid is used as the source of nitrogen, no limestone 

 is required because Cyanamid contains a large amount of calcium. For general 

 work, the amounts do not have to be too exact. If smaller amounts of organic 

 material are used, the chemicals should be reduced proportionately. 



It is desirable to start with enough raw material to make a pile 5 to 8 feet high 

 — about a ton of dry matter. The organic matter is piled and tramped in layers 

 either in a circular bed about 9 feet in diameter or in a 10-foot square. The 



