230 agricultural BEroRT. | *! 465, 406, 407, 468 



are afforded by the auimoniacal salts and the carbonic acid formed in the decay 

 of the animal and vegetable matter which this material contains. 



465. Preservation of Stable Manure. — In collecting and preserving stable 

 manure, for agricultural purposes, it is of the last importance to keep in mind 

 the circumstances last mentioned. The important mineral ingredients being in 

 a soluble condition, it is obvious that the fluid drainings from the stable may- 

 contain the most valuable portion of the manure ; and unless proper care be- 

 taken to prevent their wasting, the effective value of the manure pile will be 

 greatly lessened. Again, if we allow the decay of the animal and vegetable 

 ("organic") matter to proceed, without taking care to retain the volatile products 

 of this process (among which, carbonate of ammonia is the most prominent), 

 we shall also suffer a serious loss. 



There is a number of ways and means by which the loss of these ingredients 

 can be prevented, or at least, greatly reduced. In the stable itself, an abundance 

 of litter, and a solid, compact floor, which will not allow water to percolate ; so 

 long at least as the manure is not allowed to accumulate too much, but is 

 regularly removed, from time to time, to the manure pile. If no good absorbent 

 litter can be obtained, the fluid drainings from the stable ought to be so directed 

 as to be received by the manure pile. 



466. Litter acts not only as a mechanical absorbent, like a sponge, but in its 

 decay it forms humus, which, as we have seen, is powerfully retentive both of 

 ammonia and of the nutritive mineral ingredients. Its decay, however, is not 

 usually as rapid as that of the animal matter, which furnishes the greater portion 

 of the ammonia ; and hence, unless something moie rapidly active is supplied 

 to the manure pile, we run the risk of losing a great portion of the ammonia 

 formed. The retention of these volatile ingredients, as well as of those soluble 

 in water, is one of the chief objects of composting. By this process, we at the 

 same time, attempt to increase the supply of nutritive ingredients, and to favor 

 decomposition. 



If we recall to mind what has been said above (1T378, 425) concerning the 

 retentive power of humus, and of clays, a number of materials useful for these 

 purposes will at once suggest themselves to the thinking agriculturist ; who 

 will have to select among such as may be at his command, those most suitable 

 to the attainment of his object, always keeping in view the employment of such 

 a material as will serve several purposes at one and the same time. 



467. Marsh, swamp, or pond muck, and also decayed wood, are materials 

 very commonly accessible in all parts of the State. These supply, not only 

 humus, but also valuable mineral ingredients. 



In the regions in which lignite beds prevail (1[252, ff), materials useful for 

 composting may frequently be found in the dark colored lignitic clays, which 

 crumble and pulverize very readily under the influence of the atmosphere ; and 

 also, in the lignites themselves. Besides the organic matter, these clays often 

 contain notable amounts of potash and other useful substances. In the Pine 

 regions of the south, pine-hollow muck, which is even now used as a manure 

 by itself, will be found useful ; and in the same regions, the green and blue clays 

 of the upper Tertiary, which are often rich in potash, lime and magnesia (H"455), 

 can frequently be used to advantage. Each one must judge for himself, however, 

 as to which material suits best his particular case. It must be recollected, that 

 the addition of clays, and the like, materia.ly increases the weight, and, there- 

 fore, the expense of hauling, of stable manure ; for which reason the excessive 

 admixture of any inert clay, merely for the sake of preventing waste Irom the 

 pile, must ba avoided In this respect, muck is much less objectionable. 



468. Use of Marls in Composting. — Few substances can be better suited to 

 the purposes of composting, than the calcareous, and no less the gypseous marls, 

 before described ; and for tuis purpose, the clayey (in contradistinction to the 

 sandy) varieties of both ought to be selected by prelerence. 



The mode of action of gypsum in fixing the ammonia of the atmosphere, has 



