FARMERS' REGISTER— FERMENTATION OF MANURES. 



137 



completed, a basin, the middle of v/hich was two 

 and a half feet deeper than the raised surrounding 

 border. This border was intended to form a dry 

 resting place for the cattle, and also to keep in the 

 fluid parts of the manure, and to keep out rain 

 water from the adjacent higher ground, which (it 

 was feared) might otherwise have made the litter 

 too wet for the comfort and health of the cattle. 

 The soil was a sandy loam, about six inches deep, 

 and the subsoil becoming a sandy clay about eight 

 or ten inches Irom the surface — not quite close 

 enough to keep water from sinking, but would be- 

 come so by being trampled. The middle of the 

 basin was of this subsoil, while the outer edges and 

 the raised borders ^vere mostly of the lighter soil. 

 The yard was enclosed by a straight fence, — and 

 along the north side and partly on the adjoining 

 east and west sides, a sloping slab slielter v/as 

 made to protect the cattle in bad weather. 



All the cattle, except working oxen, grass 

 beeves intendecl for early slaughter, and milch 

 cows, were penned here at night from October 

 15th, and a slight littering was given at first of 

 straw and leaves, (heaped in the woods the pre- 

 ceding winter) and which was increased some- 

 what every day, by similar materials, and soon 

 after by the stalks of the first gathered corn. As 

 the cattle were turned, during the jjreater part of 

 the day, into a clover field, they eat little or no dry 

 food for some weeks, and during that time no more 

 litter was given than enough to absorb the animal 

 manure. Afterwards corn-stalks and straw were 

 added rapidly, and leaves as often as the other la- 

 bors of the farm permitted them to be hauled. 

 The raking of the new crop of leaves for litter, 

 was begun October 29th, on a few acres of land 

 covered exclusively by pines of the second growth. 

 Pine leaves, which are considered the best for ma- 

 nure (and certainly are the heaviest and easiest to 

 manage) begin to fall early in October, and by 

 the 29th had nearly all fallen, when the leaves of 

 deciduous forest trees were just beginning to drop. 

 Being satisfied that every rain which falls on them 

 afterwards, extracts some of their enriching prin- 

 ciples, I wished to have them heaped as soon as 

 possible after falling. At any time, leaves must 

 furnish a poor material for manure, and much 

 more so as usually gathered after exposure to a 

 winter's rains. My later raking (as leisure per- 

 mitted through the winter) was in woods of mixed 

 pine and oak, part of which liad been raked over 

 the winter before, and the balance never, so that 

 old as well as new leaves were brought in. Ee- 

 sides the leaves, the materials for manure were, 

 the stalks and other forage of a crop of 560 barrrels 

 of corn, and the straw of 2000 bushels of wiieat — 

 and perhaps 9000 pounds of clover hay. These 

 were for the stable and other pens hereafter to be 

 described, as well as this, on which no food was 

 used except straw, cornstalks, shucks and tops. 

 The number of cattle from October 15th to De- 

 cember 22d, on this large pen, was thirty-five on 

 an average; and forty-five after that time. 



Niiie mules were kept in a littered, unsheltered 

 pen, and three horses in covered stalls in the same 

 enclosure. The manure there made before the 

 12th of October, had been moved out and ploughed 

 in for wheat, and the yard and stalls were then 

 littered again with old leaves and straw, and (from 

 neglect) not enough was given eitlier for making 

 manure, or for the comfort of the animals, until 



Vol. I.— 18 



December 22d, when the litter was found to be 

 only from four to six inches deep, compactly trod- 

 den, and wet throughout — enough so in some 

 places for fluid to trickle from it, when dug into 

 for examinatioii. The horses and mules were re- 

 gularly worked, and fed plentifully with corn as 

 well as fodder or clover hay. 



A third pen was for eleven working oxen, in 

 which they had been penned on litter and fed with 

 hay or other long forage, since October 4th. They 

 were generally kept at work. 



December 24th. — After sixty hours continu- 

 ance of temperature below the freezing point in 

 the shade, (and the nights much colder) examined 

 the warmth of the litter in the three pens, between 



9 and 10 o'clock, A. M. 



The litter of the ox pen (Avhich for distinction 

 will be called No. 1,) was 14 inches thick in the 

 middle, and lessened to 8 near the edges — compact 

 and moist, but dryer than the mule litter. Two 

 different places shewed the following degrees of 

 temperature. 



1st place, at 6 inches deep - - - 47° 

 _ _ 10 __ - - - 49° 



_ _ 14 _ _ (the bottom) 56* 



2d place, where thinner. 

 At 6 inches .- - - - - 47'' 



9 — _ - . - - 520 



The mule pen (No. 2,) wlien in the wet stats 

 above described, had two days before been well 

 covered with dry leaves. In three places at the 

 bottom of the litter and touching the earth, the 

 temperature was 48°, 49° and 47° — and at a less 

 depth immediately over the two first, the ther- 

 mometer showed 46° and 44°. 



In the farm yard (No. 3,) owing to the small 

 number of cattle compared to the space, the litter 

 was not made compact as in the other pens, and 

 several inches of the fop, which had been laid on 

 since the last rain, (two weeks before) was loose 

 and dry. The moist and more compact, v/as ten 

 inches thick in the middle, the deepest part of the 

 yard, and not more than four on the outer parts. 



Temperature of three diiierent places, in com- 

 pact litter, where thickest, 

 6 inches deep - 55° 58° 67'^ 



10 — — - 47° 58° 65° 

 In thinner parts of the litter. 



At 3 inches deep 50° *52° *50^« 



The two last (marked *) were under the shed 

 on the raised border, and v/ere most exposed to 

 the sun from the south. In this yard, the thickest 

 part of the litter was the warmest — and the mid- 

 dle of the bed was generally warmer than the 

 bottom. In the ox pen the litter was evidently 

 best rotted (or the texture most weakened by 

 commencing fermentation) though this effect was 

 very slight. The mule pen litter, which is much 

 the richest, but is also the thinnest and wettest, 

 had the lowest temperature. Query: Had not 

 the recent cold weather lowered the warmth pre- 

 viously acquired from fermentation.' The litter 

 of the fattening hog pen, which was mixed with a 

 large pro{>ortion of earth, was 42° — and the inside 

 of a dry stack of fodder (examined for compari- 

 son) at 18 inches from the outside, and 6 inches 

 from the bottom, was at 40°. The lowest tempe- 

 rature of the manure being 7° higher, showed that 

 fermentation was going on. 



January 1, 1833. A heavy soaking rain, and 



