LIQUID MANURE. 



403 



such numbers, under fa\ orable circumstances, that 

 however fatal an application may be it has to be con- 

 tinued, and the most persistent may justly become dis- 

 couraged in a fight with these beetles when they are 

 abnormally abundant and swarm to the extent we have 

 known them. 



As early as 1829 Dr. R. Green, as quoted by Harris' 

 urged as a preventive measure the covering of the grape- 

 vines with millinet, but however valuable such a method 

 may be for choice vines in limited numbers, it would 

 evidently be too costly for large vineyards or for larger 

 fruit-trees. 



SOME P' 



It is well enough to look some months ahead for 

 the manure needed. Doubly liberal manuring lies 

 at the bottom of big crops. The profit comes from 

 maximum crops ; hence the importance of securing, 

 at reasonable prices, manure that will produce the 

 largest crops. There are differences in value among 

 stable or farm-yard manures. Some farm-yard or 

 stable manure has treble the value of others. We 

 are apt to make a distinction between cow and horse 

 manure, possibly between fresh and rotted manure ; 

 but with this we stop. But other points about sta- 

 ble manures are of more importance One of these 

 is the proportion of urine. 



A ton of fresh solid excrement of horses contains 8,8 

 pounds of nitrogen, 3.4 pounds of phosphoric acid and 

 7 pounds of potash. A ton of fresh solid excrement 

 of cattle contains 5.8 pounds of nitrogen, 3.4 pounds of 

 phosphoric acid and 2 pounds of potash. A ton of fresh 

 urine of horses contains 31 pounds of nitrogen and 30 

 pounds of potash. A ton of fresh urine of cattle con- 

 tains II. 6 pounds of nitrogen and g.8 pounds of potash. 



It will be seen that, at the commercial values of ni- 

 trogen, phosphoric acid and potash, taking the same 

 weights of fresh urine and of fresh solid excrement of 

 horses, the first has six times the value of the latter ; and 

 of cattle, nearly four times. It is therefore plain that 

 the greater the proportion of urine, the more valuable 

 the manure. However, in the urine there is no phos- 

 phoric acid. This is a sad lack, which, however, can be 

 supplied by the use of some phosphatic fertilizer. 



But urine has to the gardener a greater value, com- 

 pared with solid excrement. The earliest crop brings 

 the best prices ; hence a manure that will make the crop 

 larger and also earlier gives us a double value. Urine 

 does this, for the nitrogen in urine is all in solution, and 

 in a condition fit to be taken up immediately by the 

 plants. Pound for pound, it is fully as valuable as the 

 nitrogen in nitrate of soda. On the other hand, the ni- 

 trogen in solid excrement is inferior, since most of it is 



Another protective measure (first suggested in the 

 Rural Ni'i'-Yorker, May ig, 1883) is to dust the plants 

 with air-slaked lime or gypsum, and Prof. C. M. Weed 

 has suggested as an improvement upon it (7th Ann. 

 Rept. Ohio Agr. Exp. St., 1888, p. 151) a liberal spray- 

 ing of lime water, from one-half to one peck of lime to 

 a barrel of water. Mr. E. A. Dunbar, of Ashtabula. 

 Ohio, who tried this " whitewashing " of his grape-vines 

 and peach trees, reports most satisfactory results. 

 — C. Rilcv . [Adapted from ciirrcjit iiumbt'r of " Insect 

 IJf:") 



insoluble and in a condition unassimilable by plants. 

 It is contained chiefly in the undigested, not to say indi- 

 gestible, portions of the food. Urine is the manure por 

 oxieltenie for the gardener, since it acts at once. 



However, we must have a care as to the preservation 

 of the urine. Unless properly managed, no other ma- 

 • nure so quickly deteriorates ; the nitrogenous compo- 

 nents of urine, viz., urea, uric acid and hippuric acid, 

 are precisely those constituents of animal secretions 

 which decompose the first and the easiest. Hence, Pro- 

 fessor Storer says that cisterns to hold urine can hardly 

 be profitable. The best way, it seems, in which to pre- 

 serve the manurial value of urine is to have it absorbed 

 by straw or other litter. This retards its decomposition. 

 When solid excrement, urine and enough litter to absorb 

 the liquid, are mixed together, the mass keeps remark- 

 ably well. At the end of five warm months, decompo- 

 sition had hardly begun in such a heap. 



When the gardener can get urine fresh, he can hardly 

 get a manure more "forcing." But otherwise he would 

 better use the urine mixed with litter and solid excre- 

 ment. And the point for him to remember is that ma- 

 nures from stables where the urine is absorbed and 

 saved is worth to him, pound for pound, far more than 

 manure from stables where the urine is allowed to waste 



Of great comparative value to the gardener is, also, 

 manure liquor, e., the liquid that drains from manure. 

 It is likely that in Switzerland, Holland and Belgium 

 the farmers overrate this fertilizer ; but it is neverthe- 

 less true that the gardener, even in this country, can use 

 it to advantage and with profit, though he prepares it 

 artificially. In its composition it much resembles urine, 

 as it contains little phosphoric acid and much nitrogen, 

 and also in being liquid. Hence it is a splendid forcing 

 manure ; it acts strongly and immediately, and this sug- 

 gests that its use is to be on crops that are to be hurried 

 to maturity. There is this point in its favor, also, 

 that it is not apt to "burn" crops, as guano does in dry 

 weather. Volcker found that i t was almost twice as 

 concentrated from fresh as from old manure. 



S. M. J. 



LIQUID MANURES. 



OINTS WHICH ARE OFTEN OVERLOOKED. 



