136 STALL-MANURE AND STRAW. 



that, more particularly in damp weather, accumu- 

 lates in abundant quantity at the bottom. If this 

 arrangement is omitted, the lower portion of the 

 heap lies often for a long time entirely in the wet, 

 a circumstance which is disadvantageous, and in 

 continued rains a part of the fluid may easily run 

 over and escape. 



3d. The manure should always be kept sufficiently 

 moist, in order that it may undergo as uniform a 

 decomposition as possible. For this end a pump 

 should be placed in the drainings-reservoir, and ,the 

 liquid brought thence over the manure whenever 

 it begins to dry. If this is not done, the upper 

 part of the manure is readily parched in warm, and 

 especially in windy weather, and the mass remains 

 there undecomposed ; which, with substances that are 

 disorganized with difficulty (for instance, straw), and 

 most particularly in the employment of leaf-litter, is 

 prejudicial, in so far as time passes by unserviceably, 

 during which these matters might have undergone 

 the preliminary changes for their necessary rotting 

 and decomposition. Drainings accelerate this de- 

 composition, not only by maintaining fhe moisture 

 of the mass, but also by the abundance of azotized 

 substances which they contain. By adopting this 

 proceeding, another advantage is also to be looked 

 for ; that the strength of stall-manure will be in- 

 creased in the proportion in which drainings are in- 

 corporated with its mass. If care is taken that no 

 ammonia flies off, only the watery portions of the 



