44 FUNCTIONS OF FARMYARD MANURE. 



Lastly, it need scarcely be pointed out that it is 

 highly important to have the manure evenly and 

 thoroughly incorporated with the soil - particles. 

 Where the manure is permitted to cake together in 

 lumps, it may successfully resist the action of fer- 

 mentation for several years. 



Value and function of farmyard manure. Practical 

 experience has long demonstrated the fact that farm- 

 yard manure is, taking it all round, the most valuable, 

 and admits of the most universal application, of all 

 manures ; and science has done much to explain the 

 reason of this. The influence of farmyard manure is 

 so many-sided that it is difficult even to enumerate its 

 different functions. As has already been pointed out, 

 its indirect value as a manure is probably as great as, 

 if indeed even not greater than, its direct value. In 

 concluding our study of farmyard manure, we shall 

 endeavour to summarise, in as brief a manner as pos- 

 sible, its chief properties. 



First, as to its value as a supplier of the neces- 

 sary elements of plant-food. This, there can be little 

 doubt, has been, and still is, grossly exaggerated by the 

 ordinary farmer. Much has been claimed for it as a 

 "general" manure. How far it merits pre-eminence 

 on this score among other manures will be seen in the 

 sequel. It is true that, since it is composed of vege- 

 table matter, it contains all the necessary plant in- 

 gredients. As has been shown in the introduction, 

 there is practically in the case of most soils no 



