132 THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF 



employed by fanners in the belief that it is of 

 greater assistance to plants, its manurial 

 value, as compared with that of fresh dung, 

 is reduced, and in accordance with the time 

 which has elapsed since it was voided. This 

 reduction in value applies not only to its 

 provision of food, but also to its mechanical 

 value. 



Long manure, i.e. dung containing plenty 

 of straw, exerts, as we have seen, a specific 

 influence upon heavy soils. When, however, 

 the dung has rotted the straw has largely 

 vanished, and in consequence its mechanical 

 influence is lost. Similarly, the rotting 

 process is followed by a loss of nitrogen 

 in the form of ammonia, and where a 

 dung heap is exposed to the rain there is 

 a further loss of the mineral constitu- 

 ents, which are carried off in drainage 

 water. For these reasons dung should be 

 conveyed to the land at the earliest possible 

 moment, and some farmers have consequently 

 found it advantageous to keep a dung-cart 

 near the stock-buildings, that it may be filled 

 as the stalls are cleared daily, and the 

 dung carried to the fields. This practice 

 applies equally to the liquid manure which 

 is so easily k)st unless a receptacle is 



