98 TALKS ON MANUUBS, 



the manure uikUt the heap lliat will be so compact that it will nol 



femieiil, and tlie weed-seeds will uut be killed." 



" You think," said I, " that weed-seeds can be killed in this way?" 

 " I know lliey can," he replied," but the heap must be carefully 



made, so thai il will fernunt evenly, and when the pile is turned, 



the bottom and sides should be thrown into the center of the heap." 



LOSS UF A.MMONIA BY FEKMKNTiNC M.VNIKE. 



If you throw a quantity of fresh horse-niauun- into a loose heap, 

 fernientatioii proceeds witii great rapidity. Mudi heat is produced, 

 and if the manure is under cover, or there is not rain enout;h to 

 keep the heap nmist, the manure will " fire-fang" and a large pro- 

 portion of the carbonate of ammonia produced by the fermentalioo 

 will e.^apc into the atmosphere and be lost. 



As 1 have said before, we use our horse-manure for bedding the 

 store and fattening pigs. We throw the manure every morning 

 and evening, when the stable is cleaned out, into an empty sUilI 

 near the door of the stable, and there it remains until wanttil to 

 bed the pigs. >Ve find it is necessary l<t remove il fre(|ucnlly, 

 es|Krially in the summer, as fermentation soon sets in, and the 

 escape of the ammonia is delected by its well known pungent 

 smell. Throw this manure into the pig-cellar and let tin- pigs 

 trample it down, and there is no longer any is<ape of ammonia. 

 At any rate, I have never perceived any. Litmus paper will detect 

 ammonia in an atmosphere containing only one seventy five 

 thousandtii part of it; and, as Prof. S. W. Johnson once remarked, 

 "It is certain that a healthy nose is not far inferior in delicacy to 

 litmus paper." I feel sure that no ammonia twapes from this 

 horse-manure after it is trampled <lown by the pigs, although it 

 contains an additional quantity of " jtoteiitial ammonia" from the 

 licpiid and solid droppings of these animals. 



Water has a strong altraction for ammonia. One gallon of ice- 

 cold water will .absorb 1.150 gallons of ammonia. 



If the manure, therefore, is moderately moist, the ammonia is 

 not likely to escape. Furthermore, as Dr. Voehker has shown us, 

 during the fermentation of the manure in a heap, ulmic and humic, 

 crenic and aprocreiiic acids are produced, and these unite with 

 the ammonia and "fix" it — in other words, they change it from 

 a volatile gas into a non-volatile salt. 



If tlie heap of manure, therefore, is moist enough and large 

 enough, all the evidence goes to show, that there is little or no 

 loss of ammonia. If the eenlre of the heap irets .so hot and .'»odry 

 that the ammonia is not reUiined, there is still noneccasity forlosK 



