280 HORSE-DUNG. 



From these numbers every one may judge how great had been the 

 ioss of azotized principles. In practice, however, little care is be- 

 stowed on the preparation of horse-dung ; the fermentation is rarely, 

 if ever, pushed to this extreme point indeed ; but it is not the less 

 true that it is constantly approached in a greater or less degree ; and 

 that the consequences, although not altogether so unfavorable as 

 those which I have particularly signalized, are nevertheless extremely 

 destructive. A\l enlightened agriculturists have, therefore, long 

 been aware of the attention necessary to the management of horse- 

 dung, which requires a degree of care, that may be perfectly well 

 dispensed with when the business is to convert the dejections of horn- 

 ed cattle into manure. To obtain the best results in the management 

 of horse-dung, it appears to be absolutely necessary to give it a 

 much larger quantity of moisture than it can ever receive from the 

 urine of the animal ; if it be not watered it necessarily heats, dries, 

 and loses both in weight and quality ; while, by being kept properly 

 moist, it produces a manure, which half rotted, is of quality superior, 

 or at all events equal, to the same weight of cow-dung. 



M. Schattenmann, who has the produce of stables containing two 

 hundred horses to manage, follows a process of the most commend- 

 able description in the preparation of his manure, and which is 

 attended with the very best results. His dunghill stance, of no great 

 depth, is about 440 yards square in superficies, and divided into two 

 equal portions. The bottom of this stance is so arranged as to pre- 

 sent two inclined planes, which bring all the liquids that drain from 

 it to the middle, where there is an ample tank for their reception, 

 furnished with a pump for their redistribution to the dunghill. There 

 is also another spring-water pump destined to supply the water that 

 is necessary to preserve the dung-heap in an adequate state of moist- 

 ness. The latter auxiliary is quite indispensable ; the quantity of 

 water necessary is so considerable when masses of such magnitude 

 are to be treated, that we cannot trust to any casual source of supply . 

 The two portions of the area are alternately piled with the dung as 

 it comes from the stables ; it is heaped to the height of 10, 12, or 

 14 feet ; it is trodden down carefully, as it is evenly spread, and 

 plentifully watered from the spring-water pump. Due consolidation, 

 and a state of constant humidity, are the two conditions that are the 

 most indispensable to the successful preparation of horse-dung. M. 

 Schattenmann is in the habit of adding to the liquid, saturated with 

 the soluble matters of the dunghill, a quantity of sulphate of iron in 

 solution, or of sulphate of lime (gypsum) in powder ; he also throws 

 the same salts upon the surface of his heap : the object of this is 

 evidently to transform into sulphate, the volatile carbonate of ammo- 

 nia formed in the course of the decomposition, and so to prevent its 

 escape and loss. By these means a pasty manure, as rich as that 

 which is yielded by horned cattle, and of a quality, the excellence 

 of which is proclaimed by the remarkable crops that cover the lands 

 which receive it, is produced in the course of two or three months.* 



Bchattenmann Annales de Chimie, 3e 86rie, vol. iv. p 117. 





