Storage of Farmyard Manure. 151 



every twenty days. As before, the so-called conservation 

 agents were practically without effect. 



In still another set of experiments these results were 

 again confirmed. After eleven months' storage the manure 

 that had been frequently turned had lost 46 per cent, of dry 

 matter, as against 27 per cent, where the mass had not been 

 turned. The substances added were absolutely without 

 effect where the manure was kept firm, and they had only a 

 slight conservating influence in the better aerated mass. 



Although it would be premature to draw practical con- 

 clusions from the results of these experiments, they certainly 

 offer some definite information in regard to the behaviour of 

 organic matter in manure during storage under varying con- 

 ditions. It cannot yet, however, be confidently asserted that 

 it is, in the main, either advantageous or the reverse to 

 reduce the loss of organic matter to the minimum. Such 

 manure will no doubt have a greater mechanical effect on 

 land than that which has experienced greater fermentation, 

 but although under certain circumstances this may be an 

 advantage, there are possibly as many instances where the 

 opposite would be the case. But apart altogether from the 

 question of mechanical influence, there is the consideration 

 of the behaviour of the nitrogen during storage, and beyond 

 this again there is the question of the influence of the manure 

 produced under varying conditions on the nitrogen of the soil, 

 or of artificial manures that may be applied along with dung. 



On one point the experiments furnish results that may 

 apparently be accepted as final. None of the conservation 

 agents usually employed appears to have any very important 

 influence on the decomposition of farmyard manure, and it 

 may be added that they are equally powerless to prevent the 

 loss of nitrogen. William Somerville, 



