No. 2. 



Management of the Manure Heap. 



49 



farm-yard manure and buys other things, 

 can only be compared to him who should 

 leave his wheat upon the oround, and buys 

 rice or maize to make e^ood his prodiofality. 

 We assert, without fear of contradiction, 

 that the farmer does, in the great majority 

 of cases, commit a folly equivalent to this;^ 

 not indeed, intentionally, but from not know- 

 ing better. 



It is not, however, merely because of its 

 cheapness, that farm-yard manure is the best 

 of all substances for enriching land, but be- 

 cause it contains such a great variety of sub- 

 stances, among which each crop finds that 

 which it most requires, and in the fittest 

 state for becoming its food. "Fortunately," 

 says Dr. Daubeny, in one of his excellent 

 agricultural discourses, "we are provided, 

 in the dung of animals, with a species of 

 manure of which the land can never be said 

 to tire, for this simple reason, that it con- 

 tains within itself not one alone, but all the 

 ingredients which plants require for their 

 nutrition; and what is perhaps of equal im- 

 portance, existing too, in that precise condi- 

 tion in which they are most readily taken in 

 and assimilated." No wonder then, that the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England should 

 have made the subject of tarm-yard manure 

 the subject of one of their prizes, and that 

 we should in the meantime be turning our 

 feeble efforts in the same direction. 



It must be evident to those who have con- 

 sidered the subject, that the great points to 

 attend to are, first, to reduce the animal and 

 vegetable matter of manure to a decayed 

 state; and secondly, to keep everything that 

 results from this decay, whether fluid or 

 solid, or invisible, after it has been obtained. 

 It is of no use to catch the hare, if you do 

 not hold her. The farmer lets his stock 

 trample straw and manure together in the 

 yard, and by degrees it becomes partially 

 rotten ; it is then thrown into heaps, and al- 

 lowed to ferment; and then it is used. The 

 market gardener carts the long stable-litter 

 from town, throws it into a heap, lets it fer- 

 ment, and then applies it to his land. In 

 both these cases, rain and other fluids wash 

 away one part, which runs to waste; the 

 fermentation drives off another, which dis- 

 appears in the air; and what is left is, at the 

 most, about half as good as it should be. 

 This cannot be the way to manage manure. 



What should be done, is something like 

 this: every husbandman should have a place 

 for preparing manure. It should be a trench 

 or ditch, large in proportion to the quantity 

 of manure to be prepared. The bottom and 

 sides should be made firm with clay or any 

 other material that will prevent a waste of 

 the water used in preparing the manure. 



This trench should fall towards one end ; 

 and at that end a hole should be made — 

 which we will call A, — and well puddled or 

 lined with clay, so as to hold water, into 

 which all the liquid matter that runs from 

 the manure should drain. By the side of 

 the trench should be a pump and well, which 

 might be so contrived as to throw water in 

 a stream all over the manure, when neces- 

 sary. All things being ready, a quantity of 

 raw manure, consisting as usual, of straw 

 and all sorts of impurities, should be placed 

 in a layer at the bottom of the trench, well 

 watered, and trampled down; by this means 

 it will be enabled to decay faster than if it 

 was dry, for the mass will begin to heat; 

 what water the straw cannot suck up, will 

 run into the hole A, out of which it should 

 afterwards be drawn, and poured again over 

 the heap. At the same time that the layer 

 of raw manure is placed on the floor of the 

 trench, there should be scattered among it a 

 quantity of gypsum — plaster of Paris — if 

 that can be had cheap, or else some pow- 

 dered green vitriol : then the fluid which 

 drains away will consist of those ingredients 

 or their elements, water, etc. The object 

 of adding such substances, is to prevent the 

 loss of ammonia, an invaluable substance, 

 which flies away from manure, if you let it 

 alone, but which either the gypsum or the 

 green vitriol holds fast, and keeps with them- 

 selves in the manure. Gypsum — plaster of 

 Paris — is, in many places, the cheapest ma- 

 terial ; but the wholesale price of green vit- 

 riol is not more than five shillings per one 

 hundred weight in the London market; and 

 probably the material called salt-cake, and 

 now worth about three shillings and six- 

 pence per one hundred weight, would an- 

 swer the same purpose. 



When there is a fresh supply of raw ma- 

 nure ready, it should be placed in a layer 

 over the first, mixed with gypsum or green 

 vitriol, or some other " fixer," and well 

 trampled down ; then let it be thoroughly 

 watered with the fluid in the hole A, if there 

 is enough there; or with water from the 

 pump, if what is drained into A is not suffi- 

 cient. Water or drainings should be con- 

 stantly added to these heaps, for it is of the 

 first importance that the manure should be 

 kept continually moist, in order to hasten 

 its decay. In this manner the manure heap 

 may be increased from time to time, as raw 

 manure accumulates, until it is too high to 

 be conveniently raised further, or to allow 

 of water or drainings being easily poured 

 over it. By degrees the whole mass will 

 become a soft pasty substance ; and when in 

 that condition, will be fit to put upon the 

 land, or to lie by till wanted. In the latter 



