BULLETIN" 412, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



HANDLING MANURE. 



Table XIII shows the normal accomplishment to be expected from 

 a manure spreader operated by one man and usmg 2-horse and 3-horse 

 teams, respectively. The great majority of farmers find three horses 

 necessary for the operation of a spreader. The advantage of the 

 spreader is reahzed in more even distribution of manure over the 

 field, in the shorter time required to unload, and in the greater ease 

 of doing the unloading by horsepower than by man power. It takes 

 about two and one-half times as long to unload by hand as with 

 the spreader. There is no advantage in favor of the spreader in the 

 matter of loading. 



Manure carriers running on overhead tracks in the barn have largely 

 reduced the laborious work of removing manure from farm buildings, 

 while the spreader has transferred the work of spreading from man 

 to horse. No mechanical device, designed to load manure from the 

 yard to the wagon or spreader, has yet found general adoption on 

 farms. Farmers can eliminate the work of handling manure from 

 barnyards by providing a low-wheeled, low-priced wagon into which 

 the manm^e from the barn carrier can be emptied as it comes from the 

 stable. The manure spreader can also be set outside, so as to receive 

 the contents of the carrier. By hauling the loaded wagon or spreader 

 to the field as soon as filled, there need be no accumulation of manure 

 in the barnyard, the most laborious operation of loading from the 

 ground by hand is eliminated, the manure is handled and lifted but 

 once into the carrier, and goes directly to the field with a minimum 

 of loss by leaching. 



Table XIII. — A fair day's work in handling -manure with a manure spreader drawn 

 by two and three horses respectively. 



Horses. 



Rods 

 hauled. 



Pounds 

 in load. 



Loads 

 hauled. 



Acres 

 covered. 



Number 

 averaged. 



2 

 3 



61.2 

 70.4 



2,317 

 2,689 



14.5 

 14.7 



1.7 

 1.8 



123 



355 



OPERATIONS ON THE CORN CROP. 



Table XIV gives the normal efficiency of hand planters, 1-row 

 and 2-row planters, and the gram drill in planting corn. The hand 

 planter is about 60 per cent as efficient as the 1-horse planter, 

 one-third as efficient as the 2-row planter, and one-fourth as rapid 

 as the grain driU, Corn is i)lanted with the grain driU in this section 

 more generally than with the special planters. 



