2o8 FARMYARD MANURE [chap. 



sufficient depth to allow the manure to accumulate 

 under the animal for the whole winter if need be, and 

 the floors should be rammed with clay to render them 

 water-tight. Yards, in particular, should be constructed 

 so that the accumulated manure is not above the general 

 ground line outside, in which case there will always be 

 a gradual soaking away of the liquid. On the other 

 hand, yards made thus below the general ground level 

 are apt to flood in heavy rain, so that the excess of 

 liquid containing the soluble part of the manure has to 

 be run off to waste by means of a drain ; this can, 

 however, be avoided by cutting drains outside to keep 

 land water from running into the yard, and by seeing 

 that all the surrounding sheds are properly provided 

 with guttering. For real economy of litter, part at least 

 of the yard should be covered ; if the whole yard is 

 covered a certain amount of care is necessary to prevent 

 the dung from getting at times too dry. Only just 

 enough litter should be used to soak up the urine, and 

 in order to prevent the liquid working up to the surface 

 with the trampling, the floor of the yard should run 

 down to a slight hollow, filled at first with something 

 stiff like bean haulm or coarse peat moss, in which the 

 excess of liquid may collect Above all, the manure 

 should be kept tightly trampled ; the greatest amount of 

 loss takes place when the urine falls on a thin layer of 

 loose strawy litter. The yards and boxes should be 

 deep enough to carry the animals through the whole 

 winter, so that they need not be cleaned out except 

 when dung is wanted to go straight on the land. A 

 box, for example, 8 ft. by lo ft. in area, with an avail- 

 able depth of 3 ft. would hold about 9 cubic yards, or 8 

 tons of dung when well trodden down. This would 

 accommodate two beasts, each receiving 10 lb. of straw 

 in food and 12 lb. in litter per diem, for four months 



