206 



The Hog-Pen a Mine of Wealth. 



Vol. IV. 



quality and quantity of the manure; that 

 successive rains may be gradually washing 

 away the most fertilizing portions of their 

 yard, or excessive fermentation causing the 

 escape of gases which, if possible, should al- 

 ways be retained. The dung of animals, 

 when intended for manure, sliould be protect- 

 ed as far as practicable from exposure to the 

 air. " He," says Arthur Young, Esq., " who 

 is within the sphere of the scent of his dung- 

 hill, smells that which his crop would have 

 eaten, had he permitted it. Instead of ma- 

 nuring the land, he manures the atmosphere, 

 and before his dunghill is finished, another 

 parish and perhaps another county." " As 

 few exhalations," remarks Fessenden,* "as 

 possible, ought to be suffered to rise from 

 the excrements of animals. Fresh manure 

 ought to be kept as carefully from the sun 

 and rain, as grass which has been cut for hay. 

 But how are these objects to be effected! 

 The answer is an easy one. Prevent the 

 rain from draining off the best portions of the 

 manure, by constructing a yard in a disliy 

 form, lowest in the centre, so that the urine 

 of the animals may be collected in a reservoir 

 and retained ; and prevent fermentation, or 

 absorb its products by occasionally scattering 

 over the dung-heap a quantity of the same 

 earth with which the yard is bedded. 

 "Earth," remarks the author of the letters of 

 Agricola, " is a powerful absorber of all the 

 gases which arise from putrefaction. Put a 

 layer of common soil along the top of a fer- 

 menting dunghill, from twelve to eighteen 

 inches thick, and allow it to remain there 

 while the process is carrying on with activi- 

 ty, and afterwards separate it carefully from 

 the heap, and it will have been impregnated 

 with the most fertilizing virtues. The com- 

 posts which of late have attracted sucli uni- 

 versal attention, and occupied so large a 

 place in all agricultural publications, origi- 

 nated in the discovery of the absorbing power 

 of the earth, and in the application of it to 

 the most beneficial purjx)ses. A skilful agri- 

 culturist would no more think of allowing a 

 yiolent fermentation to be going on in his 

 dunghill, unmixed with earth, or other mat- 

 ter, to fix and secure the gaueous elements, 

 than the distiller would suffer his apparatus 

 to be set at work, without surmounting his 

 still with the worm, to cool and condense the] 

 rarified spirit vvliich ascends to evaporation. 

 In both, the most precious matter is that 

 which assumes the aeritbrm state ; and to be- 

 hcild it escaping with unconcerned indiffer- 

 ence is a demonstration of the most profound 

 ignorance. 



A slight fermentation in a dunghill, may 

 jodeed be advantageous in causing the woody 



* Vide Complete Farmer, p. 173. 



fibre, contained in many of the substances de- 

 posited there, to decay and dissolve, but 

 wooden fibre is the only vegetable matter 

 that requires this process to render it nutri- 

 tive to plants. In the straw of chaff and lit- 

 ter, as well as the leaves and other products 

 of the forest — which may be advantageously 

 placed in barn yards for conversion to manure 

 — will be found considerable portions of 

 fibrous matter, which must be fermented to 

 be useful. It therefore becomes a matter of 

 great importance to ascertain correctly how 

 far this process of fermentation should be al- 

 lowed to proceed. On this point Sir Hum- 

 phrey Davy remarks :* — " In all cases where 

 dung is fermenting, there are simple tests by 

 wliich the rapidity of the process, and con- 

 sequently the injury done, may be discovered. 

 If a thermometer, plunged into the dung, does 

 not rise to above 100 degrees Farenheit, there 

 is little danger of much aeriform matter fly- 

 ing off. 



" When a piece of paper, moistened in 

 muriatic acid, held over the steam arising 

 from a dunghill, gives dense fumes, it is a 

 certain test that tlie decomposition is going 

 too far, for this indicates that volatile alkali 

 is disengaged. 



" When dung is to be preserved for any 

 time, the situation in which it is kept is of 

 importance. It should, if possible, be de- 

 fended from the sun. To preserve it under 

 sheds would be of great use; or to make the 

 site of a dunghill on the north side of a wall. 

 The floor on which the dung is heaped should, 

 if possible, be paved with flat stones, and 

 there should be a little inclination from each 

 side towards the centre, in which there should 

 be drains, connected with a small well, fur- 

 nished with a pump, by whicli any fluid mat- 

 ter may be collected for the use of the land. 

 It too often happens that a dense muc.ilagin- 

 ous and extractive fluid is suffered to drain 

 away from the dunghill so as to be entirely 

 lost to the farm." 



The urine of anim.als is one of the most 

 valuable manures that can be applied to land ; 

 but it should be applied in a recent state, as a 

 great portion of the soluble animal matter it 

 contains is destroyed during the process of 

 putrefaction. If unmixed with solid matter, 

 it should always be diluted with water, as in 

 its pure state it contains more animal matter 

 than can be safely absorbed for the nourish- 

 ment of plants. 



According to some writers and practical 

 farmersf, the value of the urine of cattle, if 

 properly preserved and applied to tlie pur- 

 poses of vegetation, is greater than that of all 

 the dung which the same animals would 



* Vidf Pnvy'fl AcricuUural Chemiatry, republished 

 in tho Farmor's Rotiister. 

 t Vide Complete Farmer, p. 175 — 177. 



