FERMENTING MANURE. 



57 



and the percentage of nitrogen in the manure of April and August 

 is only a very little higher than in February." 



"Before you go any further," said the Deacon, u answer me 

 this question : Suppose I take five tons of farm-yard manure, and put 

 it in a heap on the 3d of November, tell me, 1st, what that heap 

 will contain when first made; 2d, what the heap will contain 

 April 30th ; and, 3d, what the heap will contain August 23d." 



Here is the table : 



CONTENTS OF A HEAP OF MANURE AT DIFFERENT PERIODS, EXPOSED TO RAIN, ETC. 



The Deacon put on his spectacles and studied the above table 

 carefully for some time. " That tells the whole story," said he, 

 " you put five tons of fresh manure in a heap, it ferments and gets 

 warm, and nearly one ton of water is driven off by the heat." 



" Yes," said the Doctor, "you see that over half a ton (1,146 Ibs.) 

 of dry organic matter has been slowly burnt up in the heap ; giv- 

 ing out as much heat as half a ton of coal burnt in a stove. But 

 this is not all. The manure is cooked, and steamed, and softened 

 by the process. The organic matter burnt up is of no value. 

 There is little or no loss of nitrogen. The heap contained 64.3 Ibs. 

 of nitrogen when put up, and 63.9 Ibs. after fermenting six months. 

 And it is evident that the manure is in a much more active and 

 available condition than if it had been applied to the land in the 

 fresh state. There was 14.9 Ibs. of nitrogen in a soluble condition 

 in the fresh manure, and 21.4 Ibs. in the fermented manure. And 

 what is equally important, you will notice that there is 154 Ibs. of 

 soluble ash in the heap of fresh manure, and 204 Ibs. in the heap 

 of fermented manure. In other words, 50 Ibs. of the insoluble 

 mineral matter had, by the fermentation of the manure, been ren- 

 dered soluble, and consequently immediately available as plant- 

 food. This is a very important fact." 



The Doctor is right. There is clearly a great advantage in fer- 

 menting manure, provided it is done in such a manner as to pre- 



