1838.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



5S9 



however in a great measure prevented; and the 

 bringing oi the heap into a state of preparation 

 either sooner or later, as circumstances may re- 

 quire its application to the land, can he effected by 

 the denseness and compression of the coveri g. 

 The operation therefore require? considerable deli- 

 cacy; lor, if dung, already in an unfermented 

 state, be so closely pressed as to effectually exclude 

 the air, it will be found, perhaps at the distance of 

 several months, in a state very little different Irani 

 thai in which it. was put up; or, when il is thought 

 to be in a period state of preparation, it will 

 examination, be discovered to be only decayed, 

 and, instead of abounding in rich mucila 

 substance, to consist almost entirely of mere vege- 

 table earth. 



This also leads us to remark on the common 

 practice of driving carts, with their leads, upon the 

 duvghills; the consequence of which is that, as 

 nearly the same road is followed by each cart in 

 crossing them, it is not possible to draw load after 

 load upon such a heap without compressing 1 hose 

 pans where the horses tread, and thus, instead of 

 the dung undergoing a regular fermentation, which 

 every part necessarily would if it had been thrown 

 loosely on the heap, and of one uniform thickness, 

 it is, in some spots, consolidated into a mass which, 

 in most i istances, greatly retards, and in some en- 

 tirely prevents, the process; "becomes mouldy 

 from want of air, calorie, and moisture, — acquires 

 a musty, turbid smell, — generates fungi — and is, 

 in that state, injurious to vegetation." *" The sys- 

 tem has indeed been defended by some very able 

 men, one of whom insists "that the dung should 

 be drawn out of the yards, and placed upon the 

 bottoms, though not in the usual way of throwing 

 it up loosely, to cause fermentation, but, on the 

 contrary, by drawing ihe carts, with their loads. 

 upon ihe heaps, for the purpose of compressing the 

 dung, and thereby preventing fermentation;''''] and 

 another conceives that '-a positive benefit will be 

 gained by this slight compression. "J 



This difference of opinion may however have 

 arisen from attention not having" been paid to the 

 different qualities of the dung, as well as 1o the 

 use intended to be made of it. When the mate- 

 rials removed from the yard consist chiefly of litter 

 in a fresh or rough state, not sufficiently saturated 

 with the urine of cattle, or when the manure is 

 not intended to be immediately applied to the land, 

 no serious damage can ensue from driving the 

 carts — which are usually drawn by one horse — 

 across the heap, when the dung has risen to some 

 height upon the foundation; but if that operation 

 be performed before some considerable portion 'of 

 the dung be laid on, the inevitable consequence 

 will be that the bottom, which consists either of 

 earth or of other matter devoid of elasticity, will 

 thus be kneaded into solid and unequal lumps, 

 which will occasion ihe eflect complained of 

 Care should therefore be taken to make the heap 



*Malcolm's Compendium of the Modern Husbandry 

 of Surrey, Kent, and Sussex, vol. ii. p. 5. 



t Blakie on the Management of Farm -yard Manure, 

 edit. 1828, p, 13. S?e also Sinclair's Code of Agri- 

 culture, 3rd edit. p. 218. 



% Brown of Markle, treatise on Agriculture and Ru- 

 ral Affairs, vol. i. p. 375. 



so narrow, that by driving on each side of it, the 

 carls may be backed, and the dung shot upon the 

 pile, which may then be levelled with grapes, or 

 lorks, and laid compactly together. Much labor 

 of the teams will tins be saved: if the object be 

 to prevent fermentation, the dung may be regu- 

 larly and closely trodden down by the men em- 

 ployed in spreading and levelling it; and the quan- 

 tity of earth to he laid over it may be regulated 

 accordingly. \\ on the. oilier hand, the manure 

 he intended for immediate use — then (lie dun<r 

 should be thrown lightly together without tread- 

 ing, and the quantify of earth on the sides and top 

 should be reduced; or, if the dung be of a hot na- 

 ture, from which too sudden or violent fermenta- 

 tion may be apprehended, a portion of the earth 

 may be intimately blended with it, and il will thus 

 be soon brought into a fit state lor application. 



It must not, however, escape observation, that 

 store cattle are often kept in straw-yards apart 

 Irom other stock; or else thai, when the same yard 

 is used, the stable-litter of horses is thrown sepa- 

 rately out, and thus produces two very dislincl si e- 

 cies of dung. Attention should therefore be paid, 

 in clearing the yards, to take a lew carl loads from 

 each kind alternately, so that (he whole may be, as 

 nearly as possible, equally mixed, and heat alike. 

 It will thus also be seen if any portion of the 

 dung is too dry, in which case ir should be distri- 

 buted among that which is wet; and if there be 

 any general deficiency of moisture, or if the ex- 

 ternal parts of the heap become dry during the 

 process of fermentation, they should be thoroughly 

 wetted. The heaps, too, should be of moderate 

 size, by which means they can be turned and got 

 ready at different periods, as occasion may re- 

 quire.* 



These pies — as they are provincially termed 

 when thus crusted over — if" ready by the 1st. of 

 May, may be reasonably expected to be in a 

 fit condition to be laid on the summer fiillows 

 by the latter end of July, though the time re- 

 quired for their preparation must be governed by 

 'he strength of the dung, the weather, and the 

 exact period of its intended application. Those 

 formed during the summer months, unless the 

 dung be produced by horses and cattle kept in the 

 yards by soiling on green food, can seldom be 

 collected and got ready for use within the same 

 season: but when intended for turnips, the ma- 

 nure should be carried out and lightly raised about 

 six weeks or two months before it is wanted, with- 



*On this subject, Mr. Coke is said to have lately ex- 

 pressed himself, at a public dinner in Norfolk, to the 

 following effect: "Having made a platform of marl, I 

 placed the inferior muck upon it; the manure of the fat 

 cattle formed the third coating, and upon that the horse- 

 dung as the fourth, and in about equal quantities. I 

 then ploughed round it, threw up the earth, and made 

 a kind of coating over the whole, to keep in the gas. 

 Just before sowing, the heap was turned over; and 

 thus, when the muck was in a state of fermentation, 

 it went into the drill. Let farmers follow this plan, 

 and give plenty of seed, and they will not find their 

 crops of turnips to fail; the warmth of the manure 

 would force the turnips out of the way of the fly in less 

 than eight-and-forty hours. In Dr. Rigby's account of 

 Holkham, it is also stated that, by preparing manure in 

 this manner, Mr. Coke saves no less than 500Z. per 

 annumin the purchase of rape-seed as a top-dressiner. — 

 3d edit., p. 56. " 



