650 



pose to the process of rotting; and if such 

 proportion, which varies according to the 

 composition of the substance, be lacking 

 in any degree, rotting will be incomplete 

 in proportion to the deficit, and fire-fang- 

 ing — the result of too, dry fermentation — 

 will result. But when the moisture 

 present is in proportion to the quanti- 

 ty of heat evolved by the commingling of 

 different substances, and the subsequent 

 liberation of their gases from organic 

 combinations, as in straw, humus, animal 

 excrement, &c., &c — no result as fire- 

 fanging, or too dry fermentation can take 

 place. A like incompleteness in the pro- 

 cess of fermentation and rotting will be 

 the result, if a similar lack of another of 

 the conditions thereto — as heat — })revails. 

 In this case, however, when water is 

 much in excess of heat, the nutritious 

 properties of the manure heap will not be 

 burned, but soaked out or absorbed by the 

 excess of water ; and in whatever man- 

 ner such excess of water passes off — 

 whether it flows or evaporates — it will 

 carry away a large portion of the best 

 properties of the manure held by it in so- 

 lution, with it ; leaving the manure by so 

 much deficient, as in the case of driving 

 off valuable matters by excess of heat in 

 fire-fanging. It is equally obvious that 

 the presence of air, in either deficiency 

 or excess, would affect the process in the 

 degree of its vaiiation from the true pro- 

 portion. (Hence, in England, turning 

 thick yard-dung and compost heaps, to 

 secure the necessary amount of air, is 

 generally practiced, and therefore practi- 

 cally appreciated.) If too much or too 

 little air be present, the conditions will be 

 out of proportion, and the materials under 

 process will become too dry or too moist, 

 according as evaporation has been too 

 great or too small in extent, excess of air 

 drying the mass, and too little allowing 

 the contained water, together with the 

 equalization of heat by the atmosphere, to 

 cool it below the point required for fer- 

 mentation. Hence the practice of cover- 

 ing unrotted manure heaps with mold, to 

 keep the necessary heat and moisture. 

 These seem to be facts well verified by 

 long exposure to observation — and the re- 

 sulting conclusions are therefore supposed 

 to be correct ; and if so, it is certain that 

 whenever air or moisture be present in 

 too great or too small proportion, the con- 



ditions necessary to produce well rotted 

 manure are incomplete to an equal extent. 

 As to heat, this condition is in a large de- 

 gree produced in the fei menting mass, or 

 perhaps, rather changed from a latent to 

 to an active state by the frictional move- 

 ment of the parties as they are separated 

 by disorganization, and move to the new 

 positions and relations to which those 

 affinities assign them, the degree of their 

 volability and affinity being the measure 

 of their motion, and often combination. 



It was demonstrated, I believe, by the 

 same professor at the Cirencester College, 

 that ammonia, the substance which is of 

 so much value to plant and animal, is not 

 set tree or lost from manure except as the 

 result of fermentation in some degree. 



If, then, manure be spread at the time 

 of drawing out, or immediately thereafter, 

 and plowed under, no time comparatively 

 elapses for the loss of its ammonia. But 

 the method is very inconvenient, so much 

 so that sometimes it prevents the drawing 

 out of it in the spring at all. To get the 

 manure under in a fresh state, requires 

 two teams at least, and attendants, a 

 doubling of the ordinary forces — a majori- 

 ty of farmers having but one— and need- 

 ing no more in the usual course of farm 

 work. If the manure be drawn and 

 dumped or heaped, there still remains the 

 spreading to be done, the hauling, heaping 

 and spreading, together require much naore 

 time than would be consumed in spread- 

 ing directly from the wagon — if carts be 

 jnot used — at the Lime of drawing. Be- 

 'sides, an objection to heaping is, that there 

 ■ is always more manure left where the 

 heaps stood, than on other parts of the 

 ■ground — the consequence of breaking up 

 by repeated moving. 



But even if some waste should take 

 place from the broadcasting of manure on 

 the soil in the fall or winter, and allowing 

 it to be uncovered for several \veeks, or 

 months even, before plowing under, such 

 loss must be very trifling, because fermen- 

 tation is prevented by the cold air of this 

 season, and no loss of nutriment takes 

 place by the mere evaporation of water 

 without fermentation; hence manure does 

 not lose its ammonia by being exposed 

 during the winter, even if it blow and 

 I rain, and snow and freeze. But to draw 

 'out manure at the time the ground is fit to 

 Iplow — the ground is not dry enough to 



