FARMERS' REGISTER— FERMENTATION OF MANURES. 



503 



tively, but absolutely. Where the litter is thick 

 and poor (as leaves) and left as closely trodden by 

 the cattle, there will be no ternientation during the 

 next summer, except near the surltice. 



Many have Ibllovved the practice ol' Taylor, (as 

 described in his ylrator) which was to carry out 

 and apply the contents of the larin-yard without 

 heaping, and in its unrotted state, lor the corn crop, 

 in the same spring in which the collecting and 

 trampling the litter was finished. But this use of 

 manure, howe\er plausible in theory, seems to 

 have pleased Jiiw, if any, in practice; and has 

 been generally abandoned. 



Another practice is to heap the manure of the 

 farm-yard in the beginning ot" spring, in ricks of 

 about six feet high, and as little compressed as the 

 weight of the mass will allow — and as soon as its 

 fermentation has half rotted the materials, or made 

 them ((uile tender, the manure is carried out and 

 l)loughed in ior corn. The mass begins to heat in 

 a short time aller being heaped, and in two or three 

 weeks is fit ibr use. 



It would be needless to point out the defects of 

 each of these modes of applying manure, more 

 jiarticukn-'y than has been already done inciden- 

 tally; though in various respects, all are wasletid 

 and iaulty, when tried by the correct tests furnish- 

 ed us by science. 



We have difiered much more from our English 

 teachers in the management of manure made in 

 summer, (or li-oni April to November,) by penning 

 cattle -without litter, and moving the pens as often 

 as the space enclosed is sufficiently dunged. This 

 practice was doubtless founded on any thing but 

 correct views of manuring; and was solely re- 

 commended by its being an easy mode of enrich- 

 ing a small space. But slovenly as the plan is, it 

 is less wasteful than would be penning on litter 

 during summer, which, without unusual precau- 

 tions, would produce the most violent and destruc- 

 tiv^e fermentation. It is usually thought that much 

 loss is sustained in the manure of summer cow- 

 pens, by the labors of dung beetles in the early 

 part of summer, and the complete exposure of the 

 dung on the surface, to the hot sun: and to avoid 

 this loss as much as possible, moving the pens fre- 

 quently, and ploughing in the manure directly af- 

 ter, have been recommended or practiced by 

 the most careful farmers. Yet many practical 

 men, in opposition to this opinion, have pronounced 

 that the dung not ploughed in, but left exposed 

 through the summer, produced most benefit on the 

 following crops. Absurd as this opinion has been 

 generally considered, its truth is sustained by cor- 

 rect views of fermentation. The dung dropped in 

 the heat of summer soon becomes a hard and dry 

 mass, in which fermentation cannot begin lor want 

 of one of its necessary agents, moisture. The 

 dung when thus dried is of a nature almost im- 

 penetrable to water, unless long exposed to it, and 

 therefore the summer rains scarcel}^ affect the sur- 

 face of the separate masses, before they are again 

 dry as before. All this is changed for the worse 

 by ploughing in the dung. In its new position of 

 four or six inches beneath the surface, there would 

 be enough of both heat and air — and the earth be- 

 low, aided by the exclusion of the sun, would ilir- 

 nish all the moisture necessary for the most speedy 

 fermentation. The manure would soon begin to 

 give out the last or gaseous products of putrefac- 

 tion, and no growing plants would be present to 



secure even the smallest portion of them, m their 

 ra|)id escape into the air. 



Earlier in summer, the dung beetles are sup- 

 posed to destroy the greater part of the dung. 

 They certainly bury it, and at great dej)ths below 

 the surface. But supposing the pellets, formed 

 to enclose their eggs, to be carried down two leet, 

 they are not placed belovv' the reach of roots, and 

 are better guarded fiom fermentation than if buried 

 bj' the plough. I therefore do not admit tlie truth 

 of the loss charged to these insects: but rather 

 consider them as a means for preserving manure 

 from waste. 



Proposed vieans for lessening the loss from fer- 

 vientation. 



The various causes of the loss of the valuable 

 principles of manures, and the avenues through 

 which they are always escaping, have been de- 

 scribed perhaps at tedious lengtli — and yet much 

 more space would be required to show in detail all 

 the important losses v:g in this manner sustain. 

 Every one may himself examine his own uses of 

 manure, and at least learn to avoid some of tlie 

 errors, by applymg to his practice the tests which 

 I have presented. But though we may thus gain 

 incalculable benefit from consulting the theory of 

 the fermentation of manures, still many of the 

 causes of waste must continue to operate, in spite 

 ol" all that science can direct, or care and industry 

 can perform. Fortunately however for the fertili- 

 ty of^ the earth, bountiful nature ofiers to the soil 

 much more than it is deprived of by fermentation: 

 and however great may be the losses sustained, 

 still the gains are far greater. The i'ew elements 

 that compose all putrescent manures, and the food 

 of all growing {ilants, also serve to form water and 

 atmospheric air, and therefore are always present 

 in abundance. Water is composed of hydrogen 

 and oxygen — atmospheric a'lr is a mixture of oxy- 

 gen and hydrogen gases, and always contains car- 

 bonic acid gas: and these substances are also the 

 elements that form every putrescent manure, and 

 serve to feed every plant. But air and water can- 

 not yield their elements to serve directly for the^ 

 nourishment of plants; or otherwise the supply of 

 their food would be equally abundant eveiy where, 

 and soils would require lio manure, to show the 

 greatest and the most inexhaustible fertility. Still 

 nature must enable plants to draw indirectly upon 

 this immeasurable fund that air and water contains 

 of the elements of their food, though the manner 

 cannot be traced. Perhaps the moisture and car- 

 bonic acid which the leaves certainly absorb are 

 used to compose so much of the substance of the 

 plant — that the leaves exert this power and retain 

 the fruits according to their size, vigor, and num- 

 ber — but that their growth and consequent power 

 to absorb additional sustenance froni the atmos- 

 phere, depends upon the amount of food drawn in 

 by their roots. This, I admit, is merely supposition: 

 but it is only by some such hypothesis that we can 

 account for plants returning to the earth much 

 more food for succeeding plants than they had 

 drawn from it, and yet their growth being restrain- 

 ed and regulated by the fertility of the soil. Soils 

 under goocl husbandry, though yielding half their 

 crops tor the use of inan, retain their rate of pro- 

 ductiveness, or grow richer by receiving as ma- 

 nure the remainder of what they have yielded: 

 and most good .soils however reduced by tillage. 



