ILLINOIS STATE DAIKYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 19 



The richer the food we feed the better will our manure be, and the differ- 

 ence in value, load for load, between the droppings of half starved and 

 poorly kept animals, and those of others who are generously fed and warmly 

 housed, is much greater than is generally supposed. Corn-meal, oats and 

 bran, with good tame hay v/ill make, I think, the best article that it is possi- 

 ble for us to get. I would here recommend the use of straw or cut corn- 

 stalks for bedding ; they will absorb the liquid manure which would other- 

 wise go to waste, and which is very valuable. There is also this advantage, 

 that where we pile our manure and use much straw that there is no danger of 

 losing ammonia by fermentation ; the acids produced from the fermenting 

 straw will hold all the ammonia found in the heap. What we want is good 

 manure, and the richer it is and the bigger the pile the better. 



The next point is to properly care for our manure, and this is a point that 

 needs to be well dwelt upon. This indeed may be said to be our weak spot. 

 Many of us make large quantities of rich manure, and then through care- 

 lessness suffer it to go to waste. Fortunes have been lost in this manner, 

 fortunes are bemg lost by it now ; the richness that would fill our corn-cribs 

 with grain, our barns with hay, our pockets with greenbacks, Is being swept 

 into our rivers or absorbed by the air. Our cattle should not be allowed to 

 range all over the farm in winter. They should be kept, when out of the 

 barn, in a close yard where there is an abundant supply of good water, and 

 where all the coarse feed of the farm which is not fed in the barn should be 

 brought to them. This yard should not be exposed to running water ; and 

 the manure which will accumulate in it should at intervals be made into 

 large piles, where it will ferment and decompose, and become fit food for 

 plants. Manure cellars and sheds I do not speak of, because I b'elieve that 

 if we pile it in our yards or elsewhere where it is not exposed to water from 

 roofs or running streams, the natural rainfall will be beneficial rather than 

 detrimental to it, by assisting the decomposition and fermentation of the 

 mass. 



We now come to the application of manin-e to the soil, and here indeed 

 we have a diversity of opinions. Some recommend to apply it in winter, 

 others in spring, others again in autumn. Some would plow under green 

 manure, others would top-dress grass lands with it, when well rotted. Those 

 who advocate the hauling and spreading of green manure on grass lands 

 during the winter, argue that the surface of the land is protected from sud 

 den changes during the winter, and the first thaw carries the manure to the 

 roots, where it causes a vigorous growth early in the spring. If the ground 

 is plowed for a spring crop, it is also benefited by having the manure ready 

 to be absorbed by the soil as soon as the ground thaws ; the seed, as soon as 

 it sprouts, finds what it needs close at hana. 



They also argue that it is cheaper to haul it during the winter, when work 

 is slack, and that by this course we escape the waste of manure in the yards. 

 In answer to this it is said that in thawing manure upon frozen land much 

 of it is carried off in spring by rains, particularly if there be much fall to 

 the land. In hauling out green manure it is certain we haul out a great 

 quantity of water— some estimate it as high as eighty per cent.— which is a 



