804 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



Sl'Bsect, 1. Management of Farm-yard Dung. 



4959 The basis of farm-yard dung is straw, to which is added, in its progress through 

 the farm-yard, the excrementitious substances of live stock. From every ton of dry straw, 

 about three tons of farm-yard dung may be obtained, if the after-management be properly 

 conducted ; and, as the weight of straw per acre runs from one ton to one and a half, 

 about four tons of dung, on an average of the different crops, may be produced from the 

 straw of every acre under corn. {Husbandry of Scotland, vol. ii.) Hence (it maybe 

 noticed) the great importance of cutting corn as low as possible ; a few inches at the root 

 of the stalk weighing more than double the same length at the ear. 



4960. The conversion qf straw into farm yard dung in the farmery, is thus efFected : The straw is served 

 out to cattle and horses in the houses and fold- yards, either as provender or litter, and commonly for both 

 purposes ; turnips in winter, and green clover in summer, are given to the stock both in tlie houses and 

 yards : on this food the animals pass a great deal of urine, and afford the means of converting the straw 

 into a richer manure than if it were eaten alone. All the dung from the houses, as they are cleaned out, 

 is regularly spread over the yards in which young cattle are left loose, where litter is usually allowed in 

 great abundance; or over the dunghill itself, if there is one at hand. This renders the quality of the 

 whole mass more uniform ; and the horse-dung, which is of a hot nature, promotes the decomposition 

 of the woody fibres of the straw. 



4961. The preparation of tlie contents of the farm-yard for laying on the land, is by turning it over ; or, 

 what is preferable, carting it out to a dunghill. The operation of carting out is usually performed during 

 the frosts of winter : it is then taken to the field in which it is to be employed, and neatly built in dunghills 

 of a square form, three or four feet high, and of such a length and breadth as circumstances may require. 

 What is laid up in this manner early in winter, is commonly sufficiently prepared for turnips in June ; 

 but if not carried from the straw-yards till spring, it is necessary to turn it once or oftener, for the purpose 

 of accelerating the decomposition of the strawy part of the mass. When dung is applied to fallows in July 

 or August, preparatively to autumn-sown wheat, a much less degree of putrefaction will sutfice than for 

 turnips: a clay soil, on which alone fallows should ever be resorted to, not requiring dung so much rotted 

 as a finely pulverised turnip soil ; and besides, as the wheat docs not need all the benefit of the dung for 

 some time, the woody fibre is gradually broken down in the course of the winter, and the nourishment of 

 the plants continued till spring, or later, when its effects are most beneficial. 



4962. Management of stable dung. There is a most valual)le paper on this subject by Lord Meadow- 

 bank, in the second volume of the Corn, to tlie Board of Agr. " His lordship has ever found, that, instead 

 of dung being the richest manure when completely fermented, it should, if possible, be laid on when very 

 imjierfectly fermented, but nevertheless when the process is going on at such a rate as that it must con- 

 tinue after mixture with the soil till it is completed. Every gardener knows, that the dung used in hot- 

 beds has little effect in comparison of fresh dung; and every former knows, that a dunghill, which has by 

 any accident been kept for years, is of little more value than so much very rich earth. Every person of 

 attention, too, must have remarked the great effects which ensue from turning over a dunghill recently 

 before using it, and that composts operate most powerfully, if used when sensibly hot, from the activity of 

 the fermentation which the recent mixture of the ingredients has occasioned, and when, consequently, 

 that process is very far from being completed." As farm dunghills are formed by degrees, it is desirable 

 to retard the fermentation of that which is first made, or to retain it in a state of fermentation, " so slow 

 or imperfect, that it may suffer little till after being turned over with the later made dung, it forms one 

 powerfully fermenting mass ; and that then it should be put into the soil, when the process is so far ad- 

 vanced that it will be completed, when, at the same time, little loss of substance has yet been suffered, and 

 when what volatile matter is afterwards extricated will diffuse itself through the soil In these circum- 

 stances, every thing is lodged in the soil that the dung can yield, either in point of mass or activity ; and 

 at the same time it is in a state when most likely to act as a powerful ferment, for promoting the putre- 

 faction of the decayed vegetables lying inert in the soil. I certainly, therefore, approve of the preserva- 

 tion of dunghills from much sun and much wind, as well as from that redundancy of moisture which is 

 apt to overflow and wash away the manure : but I think the pressure which the feet of animals give 

 them, especially of the lighter sort, does good, and prevents that violent fermentation which wastes the 

 substance, and, in my opinion, exhausts the fertilising powers of dung. This pressure contributes to pre- 

 serve it fresh till the time of employing it as a manure calls for putting it altogether, and at once, into that 

 highly active state of putrefaction, which, though no doubt checked by its distribution in the soil, is suflli- 

 cient to ensure a gradual and complete dissolution and diffusion of its substanca Unless, therefore, 

 dung is to be used for composts, it appears to me clearly advantageous to get the dung into the soil as 

 early as possible ; it is always wasting somewhat, when kept out of it : but when put into the soil in a 

 proper state, there is the utmost reason to think that what is extricated goes all to fertilise. Give me 

 leave to add, that I do not believe much is lost by dissolution in rain water. I could never discovei any 

 thing of the kind in the water of the furrows of a field properly manured and ploughed. The case, every 

 person knows, is quite different in fields recently limed or dressed with ashes ; but I am apt to think, that 

 the volatile and soluble parts of common dunghills have some attraction with the substance of soils, that 

 prevents their escape. We know that common loam extracts the noisome smell of the woollen cloths 

 used for intercepting the coarser oils that accompany spirits distilled from the sugar-cane, which scarce 

 any detergent besides can obtain from it ; and garden loam, impregnated as it must be with fermented 

 dung, is certainly not easily deprived of its fertility by the washing of rain. I must also observe, that I 

 take one of the great advantages derived from using dung with composts to be, the arresting and preserv- 

 ing the fertilising matter which escapes in the putrefactive fermentation ; and another to be, that dung 

 there operates as a ferment, to putrefy substances not sufficiently disposed to putrefy with activity of 

 themselves. You will observe, that this coincides exactly with the effects I have attributed to it upon soil, 

 and affords a very useful corollary with respect to the substances te be used in top-dressings, which are 

 not to be covered with soil ; viz. that if fermenting or putrefying substances are used, the process should 

 have been completed, or nearly so, in a combination that has received the full benefit of it : that it is a 

 great waste to spread common dung on grass, without having first mixed it with sand, loam, or other 

 matter in which it has been dissolved and fixed ; so that when spread on the ground, the loss, which 

 would otherwise arise from fermentation and evaporation, is avoided ; and that, if such a compost is 

 used at the time when the plants are in a growing state, and in a way to cover it soon, it is by far the most 

 advantageous method of laying it on." {Comm. B. Agr. vol. ii. p. 387.) 



4963. The husbandman of Brabant is careful that his manure should never become parched and dried 

 up, by which means all the volatile salts would evaporate. He lays his dung, as often as possible, close 

 to his stables and cow-houses, and sheltered from the sun. If this cannot be avoided, he contrives to lay 

 it under some large tree, to partake of the shade of its boughs. As a receptacle for their dung, they 

 generally dig a pit, five or six feet deep, with sufficient dimensions for the necessary deposit, from the 

 month of March till harvest is over. The more opulent farmers are not satisfied with merely digging such 

 a pit : they further pave and line it with bricks, that the earth should not absorb any of its parts; but that 

 the thick matter should remain plunged in a mass of stale, increased further by rain. The stables and 

 cow-houses are paved and sloped in such a manner as to communicate with a drain, which conveys all 



