THE VALUE OF PIG MANURE. 143 



decomposition and absorb the gases, and they in their 

 turn will develop the plant-food in the soil, and we get a 

 large quantity of manure that is free from smell, and not 

 unpleasant to work over or use in the garden. 



Where horses are kept, the refuse litter from the stables 

 should be thrown into the pig pen. Horse manure is apt 

 to ferment too rapidly, while pig manure is very sluggish. 

 Mixing the two together improves both ; and besides, the 

 horse manure, when dry, makes a good bed for the pigs, 

 and saves litter. 



For garden vegetables, rich manure is especially valu- 

 able. It is desirable to concentrate the manure as much 

 as possible. We do this by fermentation, which reduces 

 the bulk, and at the same time renders the plant-food in 

 the manure more immediately available. The plan here 

 suggested, of throwing the dry manure from the horse 

 stables into the pig pen, will tend still more to concentrate 

 the manure. Pigs void large quantities of liquid, which 

 contains nearly all the nitrogen of the food. The horse 

 manure will absorb this, and, of course, we get a much 

 more concentrated manure from the pig pen than when 

 straw alone is used for bedding. We may not get any 

 more plant-food from the two combined than we should 

 if the droppings from the stable and from the pig pen 

 were used separately, but we get it in a more concentrated 

 form and in a more available condition ; and this is a point 

 of far greater importance than is usually supposed. We 

 are inclined to believe that- many of the diseases which 

 affect vegetables in our old gardens are caused, or at least 

 increased, by the excessive accumulation of carbonaceous 

 matter in the soil, caused by the frequent use of manure 

 deficient in phosphoric acid, potash and ammonia. The 

 manure from a pig pen littered with horse droppings, 

 thoroughly decomposed and mixed with earth, would 

 furnish garden vegetables with all the plant-food they re- 

 quired in an available condition, and there would be less 



