VOL. LII. No. 2242. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 14, 1893. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$i.oo PER YEAR. 
A BULL FIGHT ON THE RANGE. 
A scene such as is pictured on this page is often 
witnessed on the great cattle ranges of Colorado or 
Wyoming. This one is taken from life—photographed 
on the spot, and enlarged by the engraver from the 
original photograph. It well shows the immense pro¬ 
gress that has been made in engraving. No human 
hand has the skill to draw' animals so perfectly. 
Two big Hereford bulls are struggling for the mas¬ 
tery of a herd of cattle. Probably a short distance 
away the cows and steers are standing looking on 
ready to accept the victor as their leader and to help 
drive the vanquished away. The fury with which 
these Western bulls fight is startling to a "tender¬ 
foot ” or newcomer. AVith locked horns they struggle 
to and fro, back and forward, every muscle straining, 
WHY DO WE FERMENT MANURE?—I. 
The Whole Thing Explained. 
JOSEPH HARRIS. 
I told in The Rural New-Yorker a short time ago 
how I fermented manure in winter, and I am asked, 
“ Why do you ferment manure? Nature does not do 
so. It goes to the ground fresh from the animal, and 
is not this the true plan of applying it ? ” I have no 
objections to this plan. Many good farmers adopt it, 
or say they do! I do not happen to know one who 
does it regularly. On most farms in winter the man¬ 
ure is left to take care of itself. In the spring thei*e 
is a general cleaning up. Some is fermented and some 
is more or less frozen. I think there is a better way. 
Nature does not boil potatoes, but long experience 
has taught us, without help from chemistry, that 
of plant food any more than passing hay or grain 
through an animal could. The animal could take some 
of it out of the hay or grain, but it could not add to 
it any more than a stove could produce ashes contain¬ 
ing a greater amount of potash than existed in the 
wood consumed. 
These arguments are plausible, but one fact is over¬ 
looked : a manure is not always valuable in proportion 
to the amount of plant food it contains. Much depends 
on the condition of the latter. It is true that the 
potash found in the ashes was all in the wood, but 
we cannot make soap out of sawdust. Fermenting 
manure cannot increase the plant food, but it can and 
does increase its availability. Our chemistry has led 
us astray, or rather we have only learned our A II C’s. 
We talk glibly of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash 
and think we know all there is to be known. “ A little 
and eyes red and gleaming with hate. Back and 
forth they sway, pushing and straining until one slips 
or falls. Quick as a flash, the other is upon him 
striking the heavy horns into the side or even stamp¬ 
ing upon him with his sharp hoofs. This goes on until 
one bull limps off with all the manifestations of defeat 
while the other bellows out his triumph. 
This bull fighting is an argument in favor of dis¬ 
horning, though the polled bulls are by no means 
peace preservers. They cannot push and fight with 
the horns, but they can still strike terrible blows with 
their thick, mallet-shaped heads. In fact, the polled 
bulls seem to learn the ram’s habit of butting when 
their horns are taken from them, and will select the 
ribs and body of their antagonists for the place of 
attack. Bull fighting is sure to occur whenever the 
bulls run continually with the cows, as they do all the 
year round on the wide Western ranges. 
boiled potatoes are better than raw ones. And so 
with regard to fermented manure: experience has 
taught us the value of the practice. I do not mean 
the ordinary experience of a few years or of a life¬ 
time, but the experience of centuries, handed down 
from generation to generation. For my part, I have 
very great respect for an old custom Those who 
want to change it must give good reasons. The burden 
of proof lies on them The fact that manure has been 
fermented and composted for so long a time, is in 
itself a strong argument in favor of the practice. 
For many years farmers thought that passing food 
through an animal added to its value for manure ; and 
they thought fermentation had the same effect. Then 
modern agricultural chemistry, during the last 40 or 
50 years, pointed out the fact that the value of manure 
was in proportion to the amount of plant food it con¬ 
tained. Fermentation could not increase the amount 
knowledge is a dangerous thing.” It has induced a 
certain degree of distrust of the teachings of experi¬ 
ence. But within the last dozen years a whole new 
field of agricultural science has been thrown open to 
us and we now see that the old principles of farming 
and gardening and the management and application 
of manure had a much firmer foundation of truth to 
rest upon than many had supposed. An interesting 
illustration of this has just appeared. A few months 
ago I wrote a short article on “ How to Double the 
Value of our Manure.” It was translated into German 
and published entire in The Genossenschafter of 
Zurich, Switzerland. Mr. M. H. Zuppinger, of Elgg, 
made some interesting comments on the article and 
then described his method of increasing the value of 
manure. He says : “ Many years’ experiments have 
shown me that vegetable matter as well as wool, horn 
shavings and coarse pieces of bone disintegrate in very 
