BULLETIN 412, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
HANDLING MANURE. 
Table XIII shows the normal accomplishment to be expected from 
a manure spreader operated by one man and using 2-horse and 3-horse 
teams, respectively. The great majority of farmers find three horses 
necessary for the operation of a spreader. The advantage of the 
spreader is realized in more even distribution of manure over the 
field, in the shorter time required to unload, and in the greater ease 
of doing the unloading by horsepower than by man power. It takes 
about two and one-half times as long to unload by hand as with 
the spreader. There is no advantage in favor of the spreader in the 
matter of loading. 
Manure carriers running on overhead tracks in the barn have largely 
reduced the laborious work of removing manure from farm buildings, 
while the spreader has transferred the work of spreading from man 
to horse. No mechanical device, designed to load manure from the 
yard to the wagon or spreader, has yet found general adoption on 
farms. Farmers can eliminate the work of handling manure from 
barnyards by providing a low- wheeled, low-priced wagon into which 
the manure from the barn carrier can be emptied as it comes from the 
stable. The manure spreader can also be set outside, so as to receive 
the contents of the carrier. By hauling the loaded wagon or spreader 
to the field as soon as filled, there need be no accumulation of manure 
in the barnyard, the most laborious operation of loading from the 
ground by hand is eliminated, the manure is handled and lifted but 
once into the carrier, and goes directly to the field with a minimum 
of loss by leaching. 
Table XIII. — A fair day's work in handling manure with a manure spreader drawn 
by two and three horses respectively . 
Horses. 
Rods 
hauled. 
Pounds 
in load. 
Loads 
hauled. 
Acres 
covered. 
Number 
averaged. 
2 
3 
61.2 
70.4 
2,317 
2,689 
14.5 
14.7 
1.7 
1.8 
123 
355 
OPERATIONS ON THE CORN CROP. 
Table XIV gives the normal efficiency of hand planters, 1-row 
and 2-row planters, and the grain drill in planting corn. The hand 
planter is about 60 per cent as efficient as the 1 -horse planter, 
one-third as efficient as the 2-row planter, and one-fourth as rapid 
as the grain drill. Corn is planted with the grain drill in this section 
more generally than with the special planters. 
