78 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



Garden Use of Concentrated Manures. Hen, sheep and hog 

 manure very much richer, as shown, than the same bulk of cow 

 or horse manure. The safest way to use them is by composting 

 with other materials, as will be described presently, but if it is de- 

 sirable to use them alone, care should be taken in the distribution, 

 as already stated. This can be assured by thoroughly mixing these 

 manures with at least equal bulks of fine earth, when they will soon 

 be reduced into a fairly dry and powdery state in which they may 

 be readily spread broadcast on the land, or be sown by the drill, and 

 be found a useful general manure for every kind of garden produce, 

 if it is evenly scattered and not allowed to collect around the roots 

 of single plants. A mixture which is good for all garden purposes 

 can be made with 1,000 Ibs. of chicken manure, 150 Ibs. nitrate of 

 soda, 600 Ibs. fine bone meal, and 250 Ibs. muriate of potash. Poul- 

 try manure should not be mixed with wood ashes. 



Deterioration of Manures. There are two ways by which 

 animal manures lose valuable constituents : first, the escape of nitro- 

 gen by fermentation which sets free this element chiefly in the form 

 of ammonia; second, the leaching out of soluble matters by ex- 

 posure of the mass to copious rains. Both of these losses are prac- 

 tically prevented by drying of the manure. The local demonstration 

 of this general truth is seen in the analysis just given of sheep 

 manure which has passed through many years of exposure to the 

 weather in an arid interior valley of California and still retains so 

 much fertilizing value. Another means by which fermentation is 

 reduced and controlled is by compacting the mass so that free access 

 of air and free passage of water are prevented. This compacting 

 is currently accomplished by the tread of the sheep confined by 

 night in large numbers in small inclosure. The prevention of leach- 

 ing in this case is also due to the fact that the local rainfall never 

 reaches in any short period volume enough to accomplish percola- 

 tion through the thick layer of manure to the soil. We have, then, 

 in the case of a dry interior valley of California, all the conditions 

 for the preservation of manure which the progressive farmers of 

 humid climates secure by means of covered cattle yards, covered 

 pits, manure sheds and other devices. 



And yet manure will go to destruction in California as fast as 

 elsewhere unless the conditions mentioned are secured. Loose piles 

 of manure, except in the most arid localities, have, or subsequently 

 receive, moisture enough to start active fermentation and will "fire- 

 fang" and become nearly worthless in a very short time during our 

 hot summer. Such loose piles thrown to the weather in the rainy 

 season will be largely leached of their soluble matters wherever 

 rainfall is considerable. Probably the easiest way to preserve manure 

 in California is to allow it to lie in the corral during the summer, 

 for there it is free from leaching rain, usually from June to No- 

 vember, and all its coarse straw, etc., dry and brittle, is reduced 

 almost to powder by the tramp of the animals. If, then, this fine 



