STABLE MANURE, &C. 



135 



On the Mismanagkment of Stable-Dung 

 Manure, especially as regards Exposure 

 TO Rain. — Whilst, ;il a vast ex[ipiise, the farmer 

 is importhiir bniics irom the; shores ol" the Black 

 Sea, nitrate,' ut'soiia Iroiu South America, guano 

 from the coast of Peru aud from the African 

 coast, he is, in too many instances, negligent of 

 tlie manure that his stable and stalls supply. 

 This negligence has been pointed out, and em- 

 phatically dwelt on, by evcrj" recent ^vriter of 

 authority on Agriculture. As regards exposure 

 to rain, and the injurious efi'ects of it on the kind 

 of mamire just alluded to, examples of it, in this 

 part of England (Westmoreland), where an uu- 

 u.sual quantity of rain falls, are of every'-day 

 occurrence, and almost every where to be met 

 with : the in.stances of neglect constitute the 

 rule ; of care and attention, the rare exception 

 to the rule. The farm-steadinj^ here are com- 

 monly on declivities ; the dung-heap is usually 

 placed on a declivity, often by the side of a 

 road, and, in consequence, after every .shov^er 

 of rain, the water that runs off, percolating 

 through the manure, robs it of some of its most 

 valuable higredients, especially its soluble .salts, 

 and soluble animal and vegetable matter, tend- 

 ing to starve the fields and pollute the roads. 

 I have had the curiosity to collect portions of 

 such drainage, and subject them to examination ; 

 and I now propose to give the results, as they 

 show, in a very marked manner, the injurious 

 effect, and how great is the loss to the fanner 

 in consequence. The first portioujeollected was 

 from a heap of stable-dung, fresh from the stable 

 just before a heavy fall of rain, the accompani- 

 ment of a thunder-storm, nearly an inch falling 

 in three hours. The 'water vs'hich ran from the 

 dung-heap was of the color of a weak infusion 

 of coffee, of sp. gr. 1002, to pure water as 1000. 

 With the peculiar smell of stable-dung, it had a 

 just i)erceptible smell of ammonia, which was 

 rendered more distinct by the addition of lime. 

 Under the microscope, it was found to contain, 

 besides a fine granular matter, and many mi- 

 nute vegetable fibres and scales, particles re- 

 sembling grains of pollen, and two or three 

 different kinds of animalcules. Evaporated to 

 dryness, it yielded 2-6 per 1000 of brown matter, 

 which partially deliquesced on exposure to a 

 moist atmosphere ; emitted a very faint smell of 

 ammonia when mixed with lime, indicating that 

 in the process of evaporation, most of the am- 

 moniacal salt had been expelled, and was there- 

 fore carbonate of ammonia ; and when incine- 

 rated afforded as much as 51-6 per cent of grey 

 ash — 46-4 per cent, of the extract having been 

 destroyed by the fire, •\N-hich may be considered 

 aa animal and vegetable matter. The ash was 

 found to contain the .sulphuric, phosphoric, and 

 carbonic acids, and chlorine, with pota.sh, soda, 

 lime, and magnesia, chiefly in the form, it may be 

 inferred, of carbonate of potasli, phosphate of 

 lime, sulphate of lime, sulphate of magnesia, and 

 common salt. The proportional quar.tity of the 

 sulphate of lime ^vas large, as was also that of 

 the fixed alkaline saltfl, whilst that of the phos- 

 phate of lime and the magnesian salt was small. 

 The next specimen examined was from a much 

 larger and older dung-heap, after a fall of 1-12 

 inch of rain in about 12 hours. The fluid was 

 of a darker bro\vn than the preceding, very 

 similar in its appearance under the micro.scope, 

 of higher sp. gr., viz : 1008, and yet less rich in 

 ammoniacal salts, for when mixed with lime, it 

 gave only a very faint smell of ammonia ; and 

 its extract obtained by evaporation, when mixed 



f29n 



with lime, had no smell of the volatile alkali. 

 It yielded, on evaporation, 10-4 per 1000 solid 

 matter, similar generally to that obtained from 

 the iirst portion in its qualities, abounding, in 

 like manner, in salts, and those of the same de- 

 scription. The third specimen collected for 

 examination was from the same dung-heap, 

 after a fall of 279 inches of rain, in 24 hours. 

 It differed so little from the preceding, that it 

 is not necessary to describe it particularly. As 

 might have been expected, it was more dilute, 

 its .sp. gr. being 1004. The last specimen I 

 shall notice was one procured from the same 

 dung-heap, after four days of diy weather fol- 

 lowing the heavy rain last mentioned. It waa 

 oozing out slowly in small quantity ; was of a 

 dark brown hue, nearly transparent, and almost 

 destitute of smell. Under the microscope it ex- 

 hibited a few particles aud fibres, a very icw 

 minute crystals, without any animalcules. I 

 had expected to have found it a concentrated 

 infusion of the dung-heap, and, as such, of high 

 specific gravity ; but it was otherwise ; its spe- 

 cific gravity exceeded very little that of the 

 preceding, and was less than that of the second 

 portion, being only 1005, leading to the conclu- 

 sion that the manure was nearly exhausted of 

 its .soluble matter. The weather, during the 

 four days without rain, -was comparatively cold 

 for the season (it was in September), with a north- 

 erly wind — the thermometer, even by day, be- 

 low .'58'', and at night once ortwice approaching 

 the freezing point. This low temperature must 

 have checked or put a stop to fermentation, 

 \\hich, in its turn, might have prevented the 

 further formation of soluble matter. The infu- 

 sion mixed with lime indicat.'d the presence of 

 ammoniacal salts; it emitted a pretty strong 

 smell of ammonia ; and, judging from the effects 

 of other reagents, its composition -was very 

 similar to that of the preceding portions; it 

 probably contained a larger proportion of vege- 

 table matter, humus and humic acid, than the 

 earlier drainings ; it gave a very copious preci- 

 pitate with the acetate of lead. The bearing 

 and application of these results hardly require 

 to be pointed out. As the drainage of the dung- 

 heap expo.sed to rain contains some of the best 

 — the chief ingredients of active manure, (ex- 

 cepting always tlie insoluble phosphates,) it 

 follows, that the more the dung is exposed — 

 the more it is subjected to the wa.shing and 

 percolation of rain-water — the greater must be 

 its loss, the poorer and more exhau.sted it must 

 become ; and that shelter from rain is essential 

 as a prevention ; such a shelter as can only be 

 well secured by a shed, under which the ma- 

 nure, if too dry, may be watered with the liquid 

 that may have run from it, received into a tank ; 

 and be .subjected to such treatment, from ad- 

 mixture or otherwise, as lias been found by 

 experience likely to render it more efficient. 

 These results, moreover, I need hardly remark, 

 are perfectly in accordance with the experience 

 of intelligent farmers, in many instances on re- 

 cord, of the extraordinary fertilizing effects of 

 irrigation with waters— the washings and drain- 

 age of the fann-yard and dung lieaj). 



[.John Davy, M.'D. in the Eiiiii. I'hil. Journal.— The 

 Oaks, Ambleside, Oct. 12, 1844. 



Manure for Onions. — For the information 

 of "J. C. C," of Exeter (p. 225), I beg to say 

 that last year I had one of the finest crops of 

 Onions I ever saw; tliey were cultivated a.s fol- 



