MANURES. 209 



nips,) as it is quite likely to cause the disease known as " club- 

 foot," or " finger and toe." 



POULTRY MANURE. 



The droppings of poultry deserve especial consideration, as the 

 richest, most concentrated, and most active of all manures pro- 

 duced on the farm. 



This superiority arises from two causes. Fowls live on the 

 most concentrated, the richest food — mainly seeds and insects, 

 and they void their solid and liquid excrement together, or rather, 

 the urine is solid, combined with the evacuations of the bow- 

 els, or dung, and the whole is of uniform quality and of great 

 richness. Under the best circumstances, (when dry,) it is often 

 nearly equal to Peruvian guano, which is worth $85 per ton. 



It has been stated that on land that is naturally good, but 

 exhausted by cultivation, the excrement of a given number of 

 fowls will produce enough extra corn to feed them for a whole 

 year. 



As a very large part of the manure of birds is already soluble, 

 it is very much reduced in value by exposure to the rain ; while, 

 if it accumulates in too large quantities, — remaining damp, — its 

 decomposition is very rapid, and very exhausting, inasmuch as it 

 does not, like coarse stable manure, contain a large amount of car- 

 bonaceous matter, capable of assuming an absorbent form on its 

 decay. When ammonia is formed by the decomposition of this 

 manure, it is much more free to escape than when formed in a heap 

 of the droppings of the stable. 



The best, most simple, and most practicable way to protect 

 poultry manure against loss is to have a floor of loose earth in the 

 roosting-house, under the perches, and to spade in the droppings 

 every few days. This will entirely prevent the escape of the 

 fertilizing gases, as well as of all offensive effluvia, and the whole 

 depth of the spaded earth will become as rich, in time, as the 

 droppings themselves. * 



