140 



FARMERS' REGISTER— FERMENTATION OF MANURES. 



on opening the top, was found by my overseer too 

 hot to be borne by his hand at tlie depth of eigh- 

 teen inches, and the top was then covered over 

 with three inches of earth, whicii had not been 

 done earlier, from thc^ fear of its preventing fer- 

 mentation in so poor a mass. This served to stop 

 the visible escape of vapor, though not to check 

 the fermentation too much, (if at all,) as I found 

 it on the 2Sth, at eighteen inches below tlie 

 earth, to be 102^ — and in another place, 90°. The 

 heapino: was stopped on the 28lh, about one fourth 

 of the yard being still left. On this, where the 

 litter was thickest, (about twenty inches,) it 

 ■was fermenting as it lay, and vapor rose from it 

 as it was dug mto for heapine;. Its temperature 

 in different places, was 80^ 70°, 89°. The fer- 

 mentation hov.ever was very unequal : some spots 

 were fire-fanged, and others stillclry and unchang- 

 ed. The heap (built around the lirst work,) v/as 

 raised generally to six and a half or seven feet, on 

 a circular base, twenty two yards across. The 

 heap was fenced in, and fresh litter thrown over 

 the uncovered part of the yard. Earth three 

 inches thick was throv.n over only a small part of 

 the top to try the effect. The first of the latest 

 leaping was 'already smoking (on the 28th,) in 

 some places, and there the heat was found to be 90°. 

 30th. A steady slow rain nearly through the 

 day. The out-spreading edges of No. 3 cut down 

 and throv.-n upon the top. The weather generally 

 warm latterly. 



~31sl. The "rain had served to lessen greatly the 

 issuing of vapor from the heap No. 3. Proceeded 

 to add the balance left on the yard to the sanie 

 heap, raising the part now thrown up to eight feet 

 high. The^oldest central part had shown no va- 

 por since being covered v>ith earth, (on the 25th,) 

 but, on running a pole perpendicularly through 

 the crust, and "about eighteen inches lower, the 

 heat was found to be 134°. In a part of the later 

 heaping (of the 25th,) where most vapor issued, 

 it was "l05° — and where none was visible, only 

 66°. Slowly raininir again. 



Februarv 1st. F'inished henpingall the old lit- 

 ter to No. 3, which then occupied'so large a por- 

 tion of the yard, that there was not enough room 

 left for the cattle, though they were still confined to 

 tlie surrounding space. The heap was thirty yards 

 across the base, and seven and a half feet high 

 when first built. Earth was throvrnover the great- 

 er part of the top, (wliere not done before,) but 

 very irregularly, as the laborers could not see how 

 to aim the cas"ts from their shovels. jNIuch Ln- 

 crease of vapor before this operation. 



2d. Found that the covering of earth was gene- 

 rally too thin. Though no vapor was visible (at 9 

 o'clock A. M.) the loss of effluvia was evident by 

 the earth being thawed and moist, and the surface 

 of the lumps "being colored brownish, as if they 

 had been soaked in the trainings from a dung 

 heap. This vras on earth dug and thrown on only 

 twenty four hours before. This appearance is 

 enough to prove that more loss would take place 

 ■without the covering of earth being used to arrest 

 it. This deposit of solid matter is not found be- 

 low, nor v.ithin the cover of earth, but on its new 

 surface — and as much on the clods, as on the pulve- 

 rized parts : therefore, it must first pass through, 

 and then (on meeting cold air and being condens- 

 ed,) is precipitated on the earth, and probably fixed 

 there by some chemical pov.-er. W here the earth 



had been laid en more thickly, it was generally 

 slightly frozen, and the escape of vapor was limit- 

 edto different spots where there was either no co- 

 ver of earth, or where the materials below the co- 

 ver were very coarse and open. INIore earth was 

 thrown on all such places that could be reached, 

 and the remainder that were too distant from the 

 outside to be covered, were trodden, to make the 

 surface more close. 



The yard v.as again well covered with new lit- 

 ter. Two pigs were brought to the yard to get 

 their living out of the grain left in the straw, and 

 to m-ix the rich with the poor materials, by rooting 

 about and separating the dung. This step was 

 susrgested by the appearance of the last heaped 

 litter ; and I believe that if suchlaborers had been 

 employed from the beginning, the deep litter \\ ould 

 (in time) have been sufficiently and equally rot- 

 ted, without heaping, and no fire-fanging would 

 have been produced. If such would be the case, 

 heaping is unnecessary, except to hasten the fer- 

 mentation of the manure for early use. 



The stable-pen heap (No. 2,) had thrown out 

 no visible vapor, except on parts of two days, and 

 then but little. On January 31st, the second of 

 two very warm days, many plants sprung up on 

 the top of this heap, from grain left from the food 

 of the horses, and the seeds of weeds in the litter. 

 As the heat is never sufficient to kill seeds in the 

 outer six inches of a manure heap, and as it is also 

 generally too dry there for them to sprout, (at the 

 usual time'of heaping in the spring,) it is not sur- 

 prising that so much cheat and spelt, always spring 

 up on manured land, when those weeds were plen- 

 ty in the ciop of wheat from which the straw for 

 litter had been obtained. This same warm day 

 first brought up the oats on the flat top of No. 1, they 

 having before sprouted only on the sloping sides, 

 where the cover of earth was thinner. 



February 3d. Vapor was still issuing generally 

 from No. 3, and conveying enriching matter, as 

 appeared from the scent. The earth last thrown 

 on had not served to cover all the surface. If I had 

 foreseen that so much earth would have been 

 wanting, the labor of digging out the centre of the 

 yard might have been saved, as a few years use in 

 this way will lower it sufficiently. 



9th. No escape of vapor visible for some days 

 preceding, (atleast as late as 9 o'clock A. M.) ex- 

 cept at one spot v/hich had not been covered. But 

 many places show by the brown color, and some- 

 times by the moisture of the covering earth, that 

 something is, or has been lately passing through. 

 In warm "weather, the steam is not made visible 

 { by condensation, and therefore its escape is less 

 easy to detect. The temperature of different places 

 one' foot and a half below the top, was as follows : 

 112°, 96°, 73°, 155°, 98°, 90°, 150°, 98°, 113°. 

 The last named was the temperature of the old- 

 est central part, and the preceding number (98°) 

 shows the heat of a part of'the new heaping, which 

 on Feb. 2d, had been Avell covered whh earth, and 

 pressed close by being trampled on. The hottest 

 places were found where most effluvia appeared to 

 have escaped — and where least warm,^ there was 

 no mark of such loss. The average temperature 

 of the Avhole would have been much lower than of 

 these numbers — probably between 90° and 100°. 



Carted away for use the balance of No. 1. The 

 interior of the' bulk seemed no more rotted than 

 it had been two weeks before, though it was still 



