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MANURES. 117 



Poultry-manure is liable to as much injury from 

 evaporation and leaching as is any other manure, 

 and equal care should be taken (by the same means) 

 to prevent such loss. Good shelter over the roosts, 

 and frequent sprinkling with prepared muck or char- 

 coal-dust, will be amply repaid by the increased value 

 of the manure, and its better action and greater 

 durability in the soil. The principle upon which 

 "Mamie's Earth Closet is based may be very effective- 

 ly applied to the poultry-house. All that is neces- 

 sary is to dig or fork up the earth floor of their lodg- 

 ing-room as often as may be necessary (say once a 

 week), and to rake it daily so as to mix the fresh 

 droppings with the loose earth. In this manner the 

 floor of the poultry-house, for a depth of eight or ten 

 inches, may be made to absorb the droppings of a 

 whole summer so as to entirely prevent offensive 

 smells or disease, while the earth for that depth 

 will be worth many times what it has cost. 



The value of this manure should be taken into 

 consideration in calculating the profit of keeping 

 poultry (as indeed with all other stock). It has been 

 observed by a gentleman of much experience, in 

 poultry raising, that the yearly manure of a hundred 

 fowls applied to previously unmanured land would 

 produce extra corn enough to keep them for a year. 

 This is probably a large estimate, but it serves to 

 show that this fertilizer is very valuable, and also 

 that poultry may be kept with great profit, if their 

 excrements are properly secured. 



