310 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



it is often advisable to keep these apart. If a "hot" ma- 

 nure for forcing is desired, then horse manure should be made 

 alone, or, at the most, mixed only with sheep manure. 

 Poultry manure acts quickly, its constituents, especially the 

 nitrogen, being in a very assimilable form. Fixers should 

 be spread in the poultry yard, and the material mixed with 

 peat or muck. This gives a very valuable product for track. 

 Manure for general purposes is best when made of an in- 

 timate mixture of the dung and the urine from all the ani- 

 mals. Careful mixing when the manure is thrown onto the 

 pile is of great importance. It aids in preventing ' ' tire-fang " 

 in the hot horse dung, and promotes fermentation in the cold 

 varieties. Leaching should be prevented as much as pos- 

 sible. If it occurs, and it generally does, the leached liquor 

 should be thrown onto the heap as evenly as possible, by 

 means of a scoop or a pump with a long adjustable spout. 

 This precaution is not merely to save the liquor, but also to 

 promote proper fermentation. 



In case of a large proportion of hot horse manure, this 

 liquor may not be sufficient to maintain a regular fermenta- 

 tion. The manure may *' tire-fang" and smoke. In that 

 case it will be necessary to sprinkle with water from day to 

 day until such action ceases. This wetting, whether with 

 the teachings or with water, should be done with the most 

 possible regularity. After the manure is placed on the pile, 

 it should not be disturbed, but it should be stamped and 

 packed away from the air. These steps are necessary to 

 prevent the loss of potash and phosphoric acid, and espe- 

 cially of nitrogen, both by the formation and evaporation of 

 ammonia and the separation and escape of nitrogen gas itself. 



As the making of barnyard manure is principally a matter 

 of fermentation, special study should be given to this com- 

 bination of changes. When a pile of manure lies for months 

 without disturbance, it grows smaller and smaller; it is 

 comparatively dry ; the straw^ has disappeared and become 

 " humus; " the whole mixture is more uniform in color and 

 character, — it is half rotted. Then, after a few more months, 

 the bulk has grown very much smaller, and a black, moist, 

 slimy, homogenous mass results ; the manure is well rotted. 



Chemists have long known in a general way what changes 



