100 TALKS ON MANUKES. 



soluble matter would be still more serious. Or, if the manure was 

 first fermented, so that the particles of matter would be more or 

 less decomposed and broken up fine, the rain would wash out a 

 large amount of soluble matter, and prove much more injurious 

 than if the manure was fresh and unfermented. 



" That is an argument," said the Deacon, " against your plan of 

 piling and fermenting manure." 



" Not at all," I replied ; " it is a strong reason for not letting 

 manure lie under the eaves of an unspouted building especially 

 good manure, that is made from rich food. The better the manure, 

 th2 more it will lose from bad management. I have never 

 recommended any one to pile their manure where it would receive 

 from ten to twenty times as much water as would fall on the sur- 

 face of the heap." 



" But you do recommend piling manure and fermenting it in the 

 open air and keeping the top flat, so that it will catch all the rain, 

 and I think your heaps must sometimes get pretty well soaked." 



" Soaking the heap of manure," I replied, " does not wash out 

 any of its soluble matter, provided you carry the matter no further 

 than the point of saturation. The water may, and doubtless does, 

 wash out the soluble matter from some portions of the manure, but 

 if the water does not filter through the heap, but is all absorbed by 

 the manure, there is no loss. It is when the water passes through 

 the heap that it runs away with our soluble nitrogenous and min- 

 eral matter, and with any ready formed ammonia it may find in 

 the manure." 



How to keep cows tied up in the barn, and at the same time 

 save all the urine, is one of the most difficult problems I have to 

 deal with in the management of manure on my farm. The best 

 plan I have yet tried is, to throw horse-manure, or sheep-manure, 

 back of the cows, where it will receive and absorb the urine. The 

 plan works well, but it is a question of labor, and the answer will 

 depend on the arrangement of the buildings. If the horses are 

 kept near the cows, it will be little trouble to throw the horse- 

 litter, every clay, under or back of the cows. 



In my own case, my cows are kept in a basement, with a tight 

 barn -floor overhead. When this barn-floor is occupied with sheep, 

 we keep them well-bedded with straw, and it is an easy matter to 

 throw this soiled bedding down to the cow-stable below, where it 

 is used to absorb the urine of the cows, and is then wheeled out to 

 the manure-heap in the yard. 



At other times, we use dry earth as an absorbent. 



