FARM- YARD MANURE. 



FARM-YARD MANURE. 



ral soil around the heaps, again coat the heaps 1 produce to be equal to 60 Ibs. per day, it follows 

 all over; the pies will then undergo a gentle i that a cow will make about 9 tons of solid 

 fermentation ; the earth, intermixed with and dung in the course of the year, 

 covering the dung, will absorb the juices and | The quality of farm-yard compost naturally 

 gaseous matters produced, and the compost > varies with the food of the animals by which 



it is made: that from the cattle of the straw- 

 yard is decidedly the poorest; that from those 

 fed on oil-cake, corn, or Swedes, the richest. 

 Of stable-dung, that from corn-fed horses is 

 most powerful from those subsisting on straw 

 and hay, the poorest ; the difference between 

 the fertilizing effects of the richest and the in- 

 ferior farm-yard dung is much greater than is 

 commonly believed in many instances the 

 disparity exceeds one-half; thus, that produced 

 by cattle fed upon oil-cake is fully equal in 

 value to double the quantity fed upon turnips. 

 My friend, Mr. Hewitt Davis, of Spring Park, 

 near Croydon, an excellent scientific practical 

 farmer, had occasion to notice this in an ex- 

 periment which commenced in 1834. In that 

 year, on half of a field of turnips fed off' with 

 sheep, he gave them oil-cake; on the other 

 half they fed only on the turnips. The succe^ed- 

 ing crops were all distinguished by their supe- 

 riority on the half of the field where the sheep 

 had oil-cake; and in 1833, when the field had 

 again a crop of turnips, the half of the field, on 

 which four years previously the sheep were 

 fVd with oil-cake, had by far a better crop of 

 turnips than that which had been manured in 

 common with the rest of the field and fed off in 

 the ordinary manner. And as the food con- 

 sumed so materially influences the quality of 

 the manure, it follows, as a natural conse- 

 quence, that that made in summer by the clo- 

 ver, grass, and tare-fed stock is much superior 

 to that produced during the winter months by 

 the store-fed cattle of the straw-yard, which is 

 usually still further impoverished by the rains 

 and snows. Hence, too, the superior richness 

 of the manure of fatting swine to those of pigs 

 in a lean state, and the far superior strength 

 of night soil to any manure produced from 

 merely vegetable food. Chemical examina- 

 tions are hardly necessary to prove these facts. 

 Every farmer who has had stall-fed cattle will 

 testify to their truth every cultivator will 

 readily acknowledge the superiority of "town- 

 made," that is, corn-produced stable-dung, to 

 I that from horses fed only on hay and straw, 

 and that night-soil is far superior in "strength" 

 to either. The relative quantities employed by 

 the cultivator betray the same fact; for on the 

 soils where he applies 20 loads of good farm- 

 yard compost per acre, he spreads not half that 

 quantity of night-soil. Mr. Dixon, whose ob- 

 servations I have quoted at some length in this 

 paper, deems "six tons of night-soil in com- 

 post with peat amply sufficient for an acre." 

 | Mr. H. Davis is of the same opinion. It is not, 

 I as the farmer is well aware, the mere straw of 

 ! the farm-yard manure which influences its fer- 

 | tilizing quality, but the excrements with which 

 j that straw is mixed. Thus other substances, 

 j when thoroughly saturated with the stercora- 

 J ceous matters of cattle, are found to be just as 

 fertilizing as straw: sawdust, peat, tanners' bark, 



she produced, under the same circumstances, or turf, are as serviceable in this respect as 

 (British Husbandry, the best straw. Arthur Young found this to be 



come out in a fine state of preparation for 

 using on the turnip lands. When the dung is 

 taken out of the yards late in the spring, or 

 only a short time before it is required for the 

 turnip ground, the preparation should be some- 

 what different, because of the compost heaps 

 having less time to incorporate. Thus the 

 dung should not be carted upon the heaps to 

 compress them, and prevent fermentation, as 

 in winter. On the contrary, the dung should 

 be thrown up lightly with the fork upon the 

 bottoms, and the side-heaps of earth mixed in- 

 timately along with the dung. Turf turned up 

 for a year preceding on wastes by the sides of 

 roads makes excellent pie-meat." 



The temperature of the dung-heap is a pretty 

 sure criterion of the state of its fermentation. 

 If a thermometer, plunged into it, does not rise 

 above 100, there is little danger of too much 

 gaseous matter being lost. If the temperature 

 is higher, means should be taken to check the 

 fermentation; and the same overheating may 

 be regarded as going on, if, when a piece of 

 paper moistened with muriatic acid is held 

 over a dunghill, dense fumes appear, for then 

 ammonia is disengaging. (Davy, p. 307.) With 

 skilful management, and under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, one ton of dry straw is found to 

 produce three tons of manure ; so that, as the 

 common weight of straw per acre is about one 

 ton and a half, the straw grown upon that ex- 

 tent of land should yield about four tons and a 

 half of compost. The quantity of manure pro- 

 duced by stock necessarily varies with the 

 quantity and quality of the food upon which 

 the animals are fed. In an experiment made 

 at the Cavalry Depot, at Maidstone, a horse 

 consumed in a week 



70 



Oats 



....... m 



Straw - - ..... 56 



210 



He drank, within this time, 27 gallons of water. 

 The weight of the dung and litter produced 

 was 3274 Ibs. 



In another experiment, on a large-sized York 

 shire milch cow, she consumed in 24 hours 



Brewers* grains 

 Raw potatoes 

 Meadow hay 



- 81 



- 30 



- 15 



126 



And during this period she drank two pailfuls 

 of water. The urine was allowed to escape. 

 She had no litter of any kind. The weight of 

 the solid dung she prod'uced was 45 Ibs. When 

 fed, on another day, with 



Raw potatoes - 170 



Hay _ 28 



198 



73 Ibs. of solid manure. 



vol. i. p. 255.) Takin; 



therefore, the average the case when turf was employed mixed with 



459 



