78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



According to these data then, the loss of the liquid manure 

 would be three-fourths of one-half of the value of the solid, 

 which would be 84:59,335. There is then an aggregate waste 

 in this State in the matter of manure from barns alone of 

 $780,074, which might and ought to be saved, and when in 

 addition to this is added the loss of other manurial substances, 

 the bones, shells, soap-suds, and other slops from the house, 

 night soil, etc., it is probable that the farmers of this State allow 

 to waste more manure than they use. 



The loss of manure exposed to the weather is both by evapo- 

 ration and by drainings from the dung-heaps, which, containing 

 the most valuable part of the manure, arc allowed to run 

 perhaps into the highway or a brook. The dung is often 

 thrown out of the stable on to sloping land, or left exposed to 

 all weathers in the yard for a long time. Heavy showers of 

 rain, falling upon manures thus exposed, must necessarily, by 

 washing out the soluble portions, greatly depreciate its value. 

 It is well known that the dark-colored liquids, which flow from 

 badly kept dung-heaps, in rainy weather, possess high fertilizing 

 properties. According to the quantity of rain that falls at the 

 time of collecting these drainings, according to the character of 

 the manure and similar modifying circumstances, the composi- 

 tion of the draining of dung-heaps is necessarily subject to 

 great variations. An examination of several specimens of the 

 drainings of dung-heaps, when analyzed by Professor Yoclcker, 

 at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, shows a large 

 amount of fertilizing elements most desirable to retain. 

 Humic and ulmic acids are both products of the decay of 

 carbonaceous organic matter ; and their abundance in the 

 drainings of dung-heaps is easily explained by the decomposition 

 of the straw and other excrementitious matter ; in combination 

 with potash, soda, and ammonia, humic and nlmic acids form 

 dark-colored, readily-soluble salts ; the dark brown color of the 

 drainings, then, is an indirect proof of the existence in them of 

 potash, ammonia or soda. 



It is also worthy of note that while the affinity of humic 

 acids for ammonia is sufficiently strong to completely prevent 

 its escape at the ordinary temperature, it suffers a change 

 at a slightly elevated temperature, in consequence of Avhich 

 ammonia escapes. Both the solid and liquid excrements 



