1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



563 



masticated and digested, without being combined 

 with richer food; and it is yet very doubtful whe- 

 ther, if all the straw in the kingdom were to be 

 passed through the intestines of animals, the ma- 

 nure made from their dung would not be thereby 

 reduced both in quality and quantity. The prac- 

 tice differs in various counties: in some parts of 

 Yorkshire, and other places, a farmer commonly 

 makes his cattle eat almost every particle of straw, 

 leaving scarcely any to litter their stalls; while in 

 Norfolk, they convert, nearly the whole into muck, 

 and no system is considered more impoverishingto 

 land than that of applying the straw as (boo in- 

 stead of treading it into dung.* The medium 

 course is doubtless the most to be approved when 

 it can be conveniently carried into effect; but there 

 are many farms which either do not produce tur- 

 nips, or only sufficient ibr their sheep, by which 

 they are eaten off' upon the land, and corn or oil- 

 cake being too expensive for store and working 

 6tock, they must necessarily be chiefly kept upon 

 straw. It is therefore profusely used for store-cat- 

 tle in most yards, yet, by having abundance, they 

 pick out the best and leave the refuse for litter: it 

 is only necessary to supply it fresh, with a moder- 

 ate quantity of turnips, or any succulent root, to 

 promote the secretion of urine, and the manure 

 thus produced will be found of excellent quality; 

 but if they be wholly fed on straw, although the 

 farmer may have a large dunghill, it will be found 

 to be of comparatively little value. 



It has been thought that cattle getting wholly 

 straw, or other dry forage for both "food and litter, 

 may consume nearly three-fifths of it as food, and 

 there would still remain a useful mixture of dung 

 and straw for manure. When they are supplied, 

 as young or keeping stock, with turnips to keep 

 them merely in condition, the manure will be in 

 good order when they eat about one-half of the 

 straw, and leave the other half as litter. If again, 

 they are being fattened on turnips, or fed on distil- 

 ler's wash, grains, or upon other food, which pro- 

 duces their dung with much urine, they would 

 then require to have at least three-fifths, if not a 

 still larger quantity of straw left for litter. These 

 proportions will, in such instances, be generally 

 found to produce manure of a good description; 

 but when beasts are fatting upon steamed potatoes 

 and oil-cake, or other provender which occasions 

 costiveness, or does not occasion a free discharge 

 of urine, it may sometimes be necessary to mois- 

 ten the dung-heap, by which means any quantity 

 of straw may be rotted, and, with a comparative- 

 ly small proportion of dung, may be converted 

 into manure. f Mr. Marshall mentions having 

 tried the effects of moisture in some experiments 

 on his own farm upon heaps of dung which had 

 lain until much of it had become mouldy, one of 

 which he watered, bringing the outward and dry- 

 parts into the middle of the pile, and drenching it 

 well with the drainage of the yard; it was then 

 carefully turned over, breaking every lump and 

 mixing all its parts, then finally wetting the sur- 

 face, and clapping it smooth and c!ose~\vith the 

 back of the shovel to keep it in the heat. It be- 

 gan to work on the second or third day, after 

 which the mouldiness disappeared, and it wascon- 



* Young's Survey of Norfolk, chap. xi. sect. 3. 

 f Quart. Joum. of Agric, vol. xi. note, p. 835. 



verted into comparatively rich, black, and rotten 

 dung; and other similar trials were equally suc- 

 cessful.* The utility of that point of manage- 

 ment is, in fact, unquestionable: the trouble is not 

 worth mentioning; but were it greater, and that 

 any ihinir is to be thereby gained in the quality of 

 the duno', that can form no sufficient excuse ibr its 

 omission — for, if it. he of any value, it cannot be 

 too good, and the experience of kitchen gar- 

 deners, who are well known to use great care in 

 the preparation of dunu, and to profit accordingly, 

 should operate as a hint to farmers to use similar 

 means. 



There can be no doubt that the haulm of beans 

 and peas produces more nutritive food than straw. 

 When the former is well broken by thrashing, it 

 also forms a very tolerable litter, for which purpose 

 it is much used in most parts of England, though 

 in some places it is wholly laid, as if of no further 

 value, in the bottom of the straw-yard, and pea- 

 haulm is more generally employed in cart-stablea 

 for racking up the horses, and for sheep, which 

 are very fond of it. In Scotland, however, the 

 haulm of neither is used for litter, unless it haa 

 been spoiled by the weather, or has become sticky 

 by the crop having been allowed to stand too long 

 upon the ground before being cut, and it is there, 

 more prudently, kept for the purposes of feeding. 



When straw and haulm are scarce, many sub- 

 stitutes are used as litter, and the quality is but lit- 

 tle regarded, because, being seldom employed ex- 

 cept in cases of necessity, they do not admit of 

 choice. It is, however, highly injudicious to mix 

 vegetable substances that do not decompose equal- 

 ly, for when the straw in a mixen is fully digested 

 and fit for the field, other articles may perhaps be 

 still in a state of fermentation. Thus, in many 

 places, heath serves the same purpose, and makes 

 very good manure; but it is slow in decaying, and 

 requires more than a twelve-month to go through 

 the process of putrefaction. Fern, also, and many 

 of the coarse aquatic plants which yield potash 

 when reduced to cinders, possess very fertilizing 

 qualities, and, when added to the dung-heap in a 

 green state, they become speedily decomposed; 

 but, when dried for litter, that operation is very te- 

 dious. It commonly takes more than a year be- 

 fore it is thoroughly concocted; it therefore retards 

 the maturation of the straw, and either the one 

 must be exhausted of its properties, or the other 

 not in a fit state of decomposition when laid upon 

 the land, if both are used in the same dung-heap; 

 but separately, and when properly fermented, fern 

 is as good as straw. The same remark applies to 

 the leaves of trees; particularly to those of the oak, 

 which contain an astringent property that renders 

 them extremely difficult of decomposition, and if 

 laid upon the land before they are brought into 

 that state, they are found to be prejudicial to vege- 

 tation on light soils. They should, not therefore, 

 be mixed up with straw, but formed into a com- 

 post by the addition of semirings of ditches, or 

 any other soil, mixed with quicklime. Great cau- 

 tion should also be observed in making use of the 

 sweepings of the barn?, for they often contain 

 the seeds of weeds, even after the dunghill has 

 been reduced to putridity; it is therefore only pru- 

 dent to use them separately with mould and a small 



♦Marshall's Rural Economy of tho Midland Cout 

 ties, vol. ii pp. 95, 120. 



