116 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



miliar with agriculture must have observ- 

 ed. The loss to each individual fanner by 

 such mismanagement is great, and viewed 

 as a national question, is most appalling. — 

 The direct loss to the farmers themselves, 

 in the aggregate, is immense ; while the 

 indirect loss to the country is positively in- 

 estimable. To prevent this loss, we must 

 in the first placs, save tbe liquid excre- 

 ments. This is a problem which has puz- 

 zled the most scientific farmers of the age. 

 The difficulty is much greater in England, 

 where turnips, containing 90 per cent, of 

 water, are used for stall feeding than with 

 us. Here, if the buildings are all spout- 

 ed, the greater part of the liquid of the an- 

 imals and the rain falling on the surface 

 of tho yard maybe absorbed in the course 

 of the year. To do this, the bottom of 

 the yard should be covered with dry peat, 

 muck, saw dust, waste straw, potato vines 

 and numerous other absorbent substances 

 which can be found on most farms, and 

 which, valueless in themselves, can thus 

 be made into enriching fertilizers. The 

 bottom of the yard should gently slope to 

 one point where a tank must be built. — 

 In this, the superabundant liquid of the 

 rainy season can be preserved, and pump- 

 ed back on to the heap when it needs it. 



In the second place we must keep up a 

 gradual and slow fermentation keeping the 

 heap as near as possible at a temperature 

 of 90° to 100°. If horse or sheep manure 

 be thrown up loosely, so that there is a 

 free admission of air and moisture, rapid 

 and most injurious decomposition takes 

 takes place, with evolution of carbonate 

 of ammonia and water. This burning 

 process (for it is nothing less than a slow 

 process of actual combustion,) may be al- 

 lowed to go on till the heap is reduced to a 

 comparatively worthless mass of humus 

 and ashes. On the other hand, if hog and 

 cow manure be thrown into a solid heap, 

 little or no fermentation will take place, 

 and the mass will remain in a raw state, 

 unsuitable for direct application to rapid 

 growing plants. The first object of the 

 farmer, therefore, should be to mix these 

 several manures together, so that the horse 

 and . heep -manure shall act as a ferment, 

 and induce the desired decomposition in 

 the bo£ and cow manure. In this way 

 they will be beneficial to each other, and 

 the heap by spring will be in good condi- 

 tion for direct application to corn, pota- 



toes, &c. Sheep do not like to lie on a 

 fermenting manure heap. They should, if 

 possible, have a separate yard to run in at 

 night, and the manure they make be hauled 

 back to the common heap as often as prac- 

 ticable, fresh straw being supplied in its 

 place. If necessary, sheep and cattle 

 should run on the manure heap in order to 

 compress it and prevent too rapid fermen- 

 tation. If these conditions — spouting the 

 buildings to prevent leaching, having a 

 tank to save the liquid which straw and 

 other absorbents will not retain in wet 

 weather, and mixing the different manures 

 together in a compact heap, so as to sus- 

 tain a slow and prevent a too rapid fer- 

 mentation — were complied with, the value 

 of the manure on most farms would be 

 doubled. 



To convert the volatile carbonate of am- 

 monia into the non-volatile sulphate of am- 

 monia, has occupied tbe attention of the 

 most profound chemists of the age. Many 

 plans have been proposed, but none of 

 them, so far as we are informed, are prac- 

 tical and economical. Sprinkling the heap 

 with dilute sulphuric acid has been pro- 

 posed. This will convert all the carbonate 

 of ammonia existing in the heap at the 

 time of application into a sulphate, but it 

 will prevent fermentation and the forma- 

 tion of any more carbonate of ammonia. 

 This plan, therefore, will not accomplish 

 the object. Sulphate of iron (copperas) 

 has been often proposed. It will answ T er 

 well in a chemical sense, but not in an 

 economical one. The copperas costs too 

 much to make its application profitable, 

 and the presence of the iron in the ma- 

 nure is injurious rather than beneficial. 

 Superphosphate of lime, with an extra 

 proportion of sulphuric acid, made on pur- 

 pose, we have used with success As a 

 general thing, however, we think its use 

 would not pay. " But," the reader ex- 

 claims, "you are forgetting sulphate of 

 lime, (gypsum). I have seen it stated 

 time and again, in agricultural papers, as 

 well as in •' Liebig's Agricultural Chemis- 

 try,' in f Stockhardt's Chemical Field 

 Lectures,' in ' The Progressive Farmer,' 

 and in every other work f have read on 

 this subject, that plaster scattered in sta- 

 bles and on manure heaps, wo u Id arrest 

 all the escaping hartshorn, and convert it 

 into a fixed salt. Gyps im is cheap, and 

 the application so easy that we cannot de- 



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