DUN 



DUN 



121 



" The quality of the dung of 

 every animal, will in a great meas- 

 ure be proportioned to the rich- 

 ness or poverty of its food. Hence 

 the dung from the stables and cow- 

 houses is preferred to that of young 

 cattle kept in the farm yard, on 

 food of a less nourishing quality. 

 Next to animal excrement, straw 

 is the chief material of a dung hill; 

 and too much attention cannot be 

 paid to collecting it. For that 

 purpose, the greatest care is taken 

 by the diligent husbandman to cut 

 his crops low. When reaping is 

 carelessly executed, it has been 

 calculated, that one fourth part of 

 the straw is left upon the ground, 

 where its strength and substance is 

 wasted by the rains and storms of 

 autumn and winter ; whereas by 

 attention to the reaping process, 

 one ton, and even more of addi- 

 tional manure /)er acre, can be ob- 

 tained. The value of straw is 

 great, not only in consequence of 

 its own substance, but from the 

 quantity of liquid matter it absorbs. 

 By an experiment, carefully made, 

 it appeared that diy wheat straw 

 had increased in quantity from 300 

 to 719 stone, making an increase 

 of not less than 419 stone during 

 a period of seven months. 



" As in heavy rains, notwith- 

 standing every precaution, some 

 water will run from the yard, there 

 ought to be a covered reservoir to 

 receive it, so situated that the 

 liquid can either be pumped upon 

 the dunghill if it requires it, or 

 upon heaps of earth, collected for 

 that purpose. The stables and cow- 

 houses ought also to be regularly 

 washed, as is done in Flanders ; 

 16 



and much useful matter might in 

 this way be collected, and convey- 

 ed to the reservoir. Where land 

 lies conveniently beneath the farm 

 yard, the contents of this reservoir, 

 or the overflowings of the dung- 

 yard, may be conveyed to it for 

 the purposes of irrigation." Code 

 of Agriculture. 



There are different opinions 

 relative to the preparation which 

 dung should undergo before it is 

 applied to the soil. It is remark- 

 ed by Sir Humphrey Davy, that 

 straw fermented is a more manage- 

 able substance, and furnishes more 

 manure for a single crop, than un- 

 fermented. In the latter state it 

 decomposes more slowly, and con- 

 sequently, though its influence will 

 be more lasting, yet it produces at 

 first less effect. 



It is observed by Sir John Sin- 

 clair, that " the old practice of 

 frequently stirring, turning, and 

 mixing the dung, without in gen- 

 eral even covering the heap with 

 earth, when it was turned, is now 

 very properly laid aside by every 

 judicious farmer, as the finer and 

 more volatile parts of the soluble 

 matter, escaped in a gaseous 

 form, into the atmosphere, and 

 left behiad only the earthy and 

 coarser parts of the mass." 



" In the Netherlands," says the 

 same writer, " the more opulent 

 pave and line with brick the re- 

 ceptacles for their dung, which is 

 thus kept constantly plunged in a 

 mass of liquid matter. The fibrous 

 parts of the vegetables, are thus 

 completely decon)poseil, and four 

 tons of this manure, go as far as 

 five, collected and kept with less 

 precaution. '^ 



