164 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



MANURE BINS AND PITS. 



There must necessarily be some way of disposing of manure from 

 stables, but the old method of merely throwing this material outside the 

 barn door and allowing it to accumulate there for months at a time is not 

 only disgusting, but is a menace to health. The open manure pile must 

 be abolished. The effectiveness of fly-tight (not air-tight) manure 

 receptacles has been demonstrated beyond question; it only remains 

 to be decided as to what form is most practical and carries with it the 

 least expenditure of time and money in construction and best results 

 for a given case. A closet or bin can be constructed at a small cost, 

 which is satisfactorily offset by the absence of the fly nuisance. Such a 

 closet may be built in one corner of the stable with a small screened 

 door, through which the manure is thrown when cleaning the stables 

 (providing also for ventilation), and an outer door giving access to 

 clean out the closet once or twice a week, or a closet of about the same 

 construction may be built in the form of a shed or lean-to connecting 

 with the stable by means of a small screened door as above. In all of 

 these cases the manure must be emptied at short intervals and should 

 then be scattered on the field. Objection is here raised by such who 

 wish to use rotted manure for fertilizer. I believe the best plan, then, 

 is to construct a pit in the ground into which the manure is thrown. 

 The pit should be deep enough so that the manure will remain far 

 enough beneath the level of the ground to cover the pit securely with 

 a fly-tight roof. Frequent and heavy liming will aid greatly in attain- 

 ing the object desired. 



INSECTICIDES FOR MANURE HEAPS. 



The purchase of insecticides for continuous use on the manure pile 

 would be a matter of no small cost, especially because of the tenacity 

 of life shown by fly larvae and the consequent strength of insecticides 

 necessary to kill them. The cheapest, and at the same time effective, 

 preparations now available must be applied in strength two to five times 

 that which is useful against other insects, and furthermore, the larva? 

 can not be easily reached buried as they are in the bedding and offal. 

 Chemicals used to destroy the larvae (maggots) in the manure pile may 

 be roughly divided into two classes (1) contact poisons, and (2) stomach 

 poisons. To the first class belong such preparations as the kerosenes 

 (generally used in the form of emulsions) and the cresol preparations, 

 also chloride of lime. To the second class belong the arsenicals repre- 

 sented by arsenate of lead and Paris green. All of these insecticides 

 are more or less effective when used in proper concentrations and in 

 sufficient quantities, but none of them can be applied with any degree 

 of safety to man or the domesticated animals, because of either their 

 inflammable, poisonous or corrosive nature. We are. consequently, 

 again forced to recognize the utility of fly-tight receptacles for the 

 manures. "While the experiments with tobacco decoctions applied to 

 the manure pile have not proven successful, the use of tobacco dust 

 liberally intermixed seems to offer better results. 



