36 On Liquid Manure. 



this arrangement be adopted, the liquid in the tank may fre- 

 quently be pumped over the manure in the pit without doing any 

 harm, which it would be sure to do if no provision were made 

 for the excess of liquid to drain back into the tank. This is of 

 particular importance on farms where cattle, for want of straw, 

 are insufficiently littered, and the manure consequently is very 

 wet. The bulk of the solid manure, as well as the quantity of 

 absorbing materials, might be considerably increased if coal- 

 ashes, dry sawdust, and dry refuse matters of every description, 

 and even dry earth, were thrown upon the manure-heap ; and I 

 feel convinced that, with a little care and management, the whole 

 of the liquid excrements might gradually be absorbed and incor- 

 porated with the solid manure and litter. 



The third plan of disposing of liquid manure is most benefi- 

 cially adopted on farms upon which much more straw is produced 

 than can be sold or consumed in feeding-boxes. On many farms 

 in the neighbourhood of Cirencester it is impossible to convert 

 in boxes the excess of straw into manure. There is not sufficient 

 moisture to rot the straw. 



On our own farm we have so much straw in the manure 

 that it would not ferment properly if it were not exposed in the 

 manure-pit to the rain that falls, and if it were not besides 

 moistened with the sewage that flows from the College into the 

 liquid-manure tank. Where there is an excess of straw, no diffi- 

 culty exists of disposing of liquid manure, since the straw is 

 capable of taking up more liquid than is supplied in the urine of 

 animals. For this reason it is of no use to erect a roof over the 

 manure-pit on farms where a large excess of straw is employed 

 in the making of manure. On such farms I think no sensible 

 man would contemplate for a moment the introduction of the 

 system of liquid manuring. 



Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, 

 December, 1858. 



