Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1917. 95 



ter knows, in the East and the Middle West. Inquiry among 

 sheep men discloses the fact that they are not sure about the 

 losses that may result from this method of handling sheep 

 manure. 



In order to study this question an experiment was started 

 in the fall of 1915 which involved the construction of a suitable 

 manure pit and led to a trial of winter feeding of swine, and 

 an experiment in the care and handling of ordinary mixed ma- 

 nure from cows and horses as well as the handling of sheep 

 manure for which the experiment was originally planned. 



The Manure Pit. 



The manure pit, if a structure above ground can be called 

 a pit, is built beneath a shed. It is of cement construction ; 

 33 by 30 feet, with walls of cement 18 inches high above the 

 floor. A partition wall of the same height divides the pit into 

 two equal parts. One-half was used for the experiment with 

 sheep manure and the other half for that with the cow and 

 horse manure. The sides above the concrete are temporary 

 and made of rough boarding. It is not necessary to carry the 

 walls higher than 18 inches as the liquid will never accumulate 

 to that depth. The movable wooden sides make loading the 

 manure from the pit easy. The cement floor is four inches thick 

 and the cement walls taper from 8 inches at the bottom to 6 

 inches in thickness at the top. The floor inclines toward one 

 corner at the middle partition where there is a partition so 

 that if liquid accumulates too fast in the manure it will drain 

 to these pockets. If the top is too dry the liquid from the ma- 

 nure can be readily pumped to the dry portions or if the top 

 is too dry and no liquid has accumulated, the manure can be wet 

 with water. 



It took 15 horse days, chiefly drawing gravel and sand 

 for the concrete work, 58^ man days and 120 bags (30 barrels) 

 of cement to construct the pit. The cost for everything, at 

 prices that prevailed in the fall of 1915, was a little less than 

 $200. 



