MANURES. 75 



of half-rotted straw or manure that has been injured by heating 

 or leaching. Then the farmer, instead of applying this manure 

 to a crop which will of itself produce something to enrich the 

 soil, draws it out to some poor spot in the field, where he 

 intends to plant corn, hoping in this way to bring that spot up 

 to average fertility with the rest of the field. Instead of put- 

 ting it near the surface to warm the soil and be acted upon by 

 the atmosphere, he plows it under as deeply as possible. He 

 sees but little effect from it, and is glad that he has no more of 

 it to handle. Coming back to the question : 



How Shall We Save the Most Manure? First We 

 must have a good barn-yard, but this I shall describe in another 

 chapter. The cattle should, when not in the stable, be confined 

 in the barn-yard from the time they leave the pasture in the fall 

 till turned out in the spring. To this barn-yard should be 

 brought all the waste of the farm. Stack the straw here ; bring 

 the corn-fodder from the fields; carry the waste from the 

 mangers, and wheel the manure from the stables, and spread it 

 so that it will be mixed and incorporated with the waste material. 

 Every thing in the way of vegetable refuse that will absorb 

 liquids should be brought here potato-tops, cornstalks, straw, 

 sorgo bagasse or sawdust from the mill. The farmer who has 

 followed the old plan of stacking straw in the fields and pastur- 

 ing his cornstalks, will be astonished at the bulk of material he 

 can get together in a winter in this way. If the hogs can be 

 kept in pens adjoining the barn-yard, so as to be bedded with 

 some of the waste, and let out a part of each day, they will add 

 to the value of the manure. In the stable there should be tight 

 floors, and enough sawdust or other absorbents used to save all 

 the liquid manure, for this from horses, cattle, or sheep is of 

 much greater value than the solid. To save the liquid manure 

 in the cow-stable there should be a water-tight manure ditch, and 

 this will be illustrated and described in another chapter. 



The farmer should guard against the sources of waste in 

 manure, and the greatest causes of waste I conceive to be, first, 

 from leaching; second, loss of ammonia from excessive heating; 

 third, unwisely applying the manure to the soil. To guard 



