THE GENESEE FARMER 



n 



found on most farms, and which, valueless in tliem 

 selves, can thus be niado into enrichiii;;- fertilizers. 

 The bottom of the yard should gently slope to one 

 point where a tank must be built. In this, the su- 

 perabundant liquid of the rainy season can be pre- 

 served, and pumped buck ou to the heap when it 

 needs it 



In the second place, we must keep up a gradual 

 and slow fermentation, keepin.ijf the heap as near as 

 possible at a temperature of 90° to 100'^. If horse 

 or sheep manure, be thrown up loosel}', so that there 

 is a free admission of air and moisture, rapid and 

 most injurious decomposition takes place, with evolu- 

 tion of carbonate of ammonia and water. This burn- 

 ing process (for it is nothing less than a slow process 

 of actual conihustioH) may be allowed to go on till 

 the heap is reduced to a comparatively worthless 

 maoS of humus and ashes. Ou the other hand, if hog 

 and cow manure be thrown into a solid heap, little or 

 no fermentation will take place, and the mass will 

 remain in a raw state, unsuitable for direct applica- 

 tion to rapid growing plants. The first object of the 

 farmer, therefore, should be to mix these several ma- 

 nures together, so that the horse and sheep manure 

 shall act as a ferment, and induce the desired decom- 

 position in the hog and cow manure. In this way 

 they will be beneficial to each other, and the heap by 

 spring will be in good condition for direct application 

 to corn, potatoes, <fec. >Sheep do not like to lie on a 

 fermenting manure heap. They should, if possible, 

 have a separate yard to run in at night, and the ma 

 n<ire they make be hauled back to the common heap 

 as often as practicable, fresh straw being supplied in 

 its place. If necessary, sheep and cattle should run 

 on the manure heap in order to compress it and pre- 

 vent too rapid fermentation. If these conditions — 

 spouting the buildings to prevent leaching, having a 

 tank to eave the liquid which straw and other ab- 

 sorbents will not retain in wet weather, and mixing 

 the different manures together in a compact heap, so 

 tis to sustain a slow and prevent a too rapid ferment- 

 action ^vere complied with, the value of the manure 

 Cii most farms would be doubled. 



To convert tha volatile carbonate of ammonia into 

 the non volatile sulphate of ammonia, ha^ occupied 

 the attention of the most profound chemists of the 

 age. Many plans have been proposed, but none of 

 them, so far as we are informed, are practical and 

 economical. Sprinkling the heap with dilute sulphuric 

 acid has been proposed. This will convert all the 

 carbonate of ammonia existing in the heap at the 

 time of application into a sulphate, but it will pre- 

 vent fermentation and the formation of any more 

 carbonate of ammonia. This plan, therefore, will not 

 accomplish the object. Sulphate of iron (copperas) 

 has been often proposed. It will answer well in a 

 chemical sen.^e, but not in an economical one. The 

 copperas costs too much to make its application 

 profitable, and the presence of the iron in the manure 

 is mjurious rather than beneficial. Superphosphate 

 of lime, with an extra proportion of sulphuric acid, 

 made on purpose, we have used with success. As a 

 general thing, however, we think its use would not 

 pay. " But," the reader exclaims, " you are forgetting 

 sulphate of lime, (gypsum.) I have seen it stated 

 time and again, in agricultural papers, as well as in 

 ' LiEBio's Agricultural Chemistry,' in ' Stockhardt's 

 Chemical Field Lectures,' in ' The Progressive Far- 

 mer,'^and ia every other work I have read oa this 



subjocr, that plaster scattered in stables and on mar 

 [mrc heaps, would arrest all the escaping hartshorn, 

 and convert it into a fixed salt. Uypsum is cheap, 

 and the application so easy that we cannot desire 

 anything better for the purpose." That is all true, 

 except in one particular; plaster, uni-kss in solution, 

 will not convert the carbonate of ammonia, into a 

 sidfjlutle of ammonia, Likbio, STOcKHARivr and Nash, 

 and the agricultural papers to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. We are exceedingly sorry that it will not. 

 It would be such a great advantage to the farmer. 

 By its aid, he could reduce his whole manure heap, 

 by fermentation, to a few wagon loads, and it would 

 be so strong that a few bushels would be suffieieut 

 for an acre, saving an immense amount of labor and 

 expense in hauling it to the field, &c. 



"But can it be possible that such able chemists 

 have made so great a blunder ?" It is easy to ac- 

 count for this fact. Chemists always work with their 

 re-agents in solution, and sulphate of lime in solutian 

 will conveit carbonate of ammonia into caibmate of 

 lime and sulphate of ammonia. Such being the case, 

 the chemist, stung with the taunt, " Chemistry has 

 done nothing for agriculture," asserts that he has dis- 

 covered something that will be of great benefit to 

 every practical farmer, and states that by scatterm"- 

 gypsum on fermenting manure, the escaping ammonia 

 will be arrested. Learned authors embodied it in 

 new works. The newspapers take up the assertion 

 and scatter it broadcast over the land; so that at the 

 present time it is as familiar as household words, and 

 if you attempt to undeceive a person on the sub- 

 ject, he will take you for a young upstart,, and advise 

 you to speak a little more respectfully of the great 

 teachers of science! 



Scattering dry or moist plaster on the manure- heap, 

 then, is of little use. But if we could only dissolve 

 it, it would be just the thing we want. Cannot this 

 be done ? It is true that something like 4'.lO pounds 

 of water are required to dissolve one pound of plas- 

 ter, but cannot the water be used over and over aga:n, 

 the manure taking the sulphate of lime from the 

 water as it is filtered through it ? The water in the 

 tank should always be kept saturated with gypsum. 

 In this way plaster sufficient to form a considerable 

 quantity of sulphate of ammonia might be placed in 

 the heap without rendering the manure too wet for 

 fermentation, inasmuch as the carbonate of lime re- 

 .<ulting from the transformed sulphate of lime would 

 materially assist decomposition. This method will 

 not only preserve all the most valuable substances of 

 the manure, but it will enable the wheat growing 

 farmer to drive oif a great part of the valueless por- 

 tion of the manure — carbon and water — and so re- 

 duce the weight and bulk of the heap, and the labor 

 and expense of applying it to the soil. Manures 

 managed in this way, and fermented to the extent 

 propoi-ed, may be used as top dressing with little, if 

 any loss. Oa loamy soil, it may be drawn out in the 

 fall — the comparatively leisure season of the farmer 

 — and spread on the land, ready for plotving in for 

 corn, potatoes, &c., the next spring. 



To carry out successfully the plan of preparing 

 manure which we have briefly attempted to sketch it, 

 will be necessary to have the farm buildings arranged 

 with this object in view. As a general thing, at 

 present, the barn and cow house, the stables, the pig- 

 geries, and the sheep-yard, all occupy separate places, 

 often quite a distance from each other. This ought 



