146 



Storage of Farmyard Manure. 



principles prevail throughout that make it impossible alto- 

 gether to reconcile the divergent methods of treatment which 

 one so frequently encounters. 



Even in Germany, the home of scientific research, one fails 

 to find more agreement amongst scientists and farmers on 

 this particular point than in this country, and this is doubt- 

 less the reason that has induced the Deutsche Landwirth- 

 schaftliche Gesellschaft, in co-operation with the Experimental 

 Stations of Augsburg, Bonn, Darmstadt, Gottingen, Jena, 

 and Rostock, to take up the subject, in which much valuable 

 work has been done during the past four years. 



Konig, Kiihn, Holdefleiss and others had, previous to the 

 present decade, carried out a certain number of experiments 

 on the conservation of farmyard manure ; but it was felt that 

 it would be better in the present instance to ignore all pre- 

 vious work, and to start absolutely ah initio. Although this 

 would appear to be a somewhat drastic method of procedure 

 it has much to commend it, and the interim reports display 

 a logical sequence in methods and results that could not have 

 been obtained in any other way. These reports are to be found 

 partly in the Year Books of the stations concerned, partly in 



Die Landwirthschaftliche Versuchs-Stationen," and partly in 

 the form of independent brochures ; and although they contain 

 much of the highest value to agriculture, the stage of the 

 inquiry that has been reached may be gathered from the 

 words in which Dr. Wagner concludes an account of his 

 work up to the year 1896 : — " What I say is this, that our 

 investigations during the past few years form no more than 

 a solid foundation for further progress." 



The matter that has so far claimed most attention is the 

 changes and losses that occur in the nitrogen of farmyard 

 manure during the period of storage, but attention may, in 

 the present instance, be given to the effect of different 

 methods of treatment on the disappearance of organic matter, 

 and, incidentally, on the temperature of masses of manure. 



The investig'ation of farmyard manure presents many 

 difficulties, one of which is intimately associated with the 

 great mass of material that has to be dealt with in actual farm 

 practice. In order to obviate this difficulty as far as possible, 



