106 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
April 
weather is so cold that it would freeze. Charcoal dust 
from the beds or bottoms of coal-pits, is preferable to 
peat for using under animals, as it is generally dryer 
and will absorb more liquid. A quantity of peat, or 
coal dust may be kept in some empty stall, or in a cor¬ 
ner of the barn, where it will seldom freeze, if the barn 
is as tight and warm as it should be for the comfort of 
the cattle. Sheep pens or yards should have a layer of 
muck, of several inches in thickness, spread over them 
in the fall, before the sheep are taken in,* this will absorb 
the urine, a considerable portion of which would other¬ 
wise soak into the ground. 
In making compost heaps, the different kinds of ma¬ 
nure should be so mixed that the fermentation may be 
equal and uniform through the mass. The manure of 
horses and sheep has a much greater tendency to ferment 
than that from neat cattle, and when piled by itself it is 
liable to acquire too high a degree of heat; but by mixing 
all together this* tendency is counteracted, anfl the quali¬ 
ty of the whole is improved. In forming the heap, a 
layer of muck should be put at the bottom, then a layer 
of manure spread evenly over it, and so on in alternate 
layers, covering the whole at last with muck to absorb 
the exhalations. Considerable moisture is necessary for 
proper fermentation—the heap should neither be too wet 
nor too dry—either extreme will retard the process. 
If the manure has been kept in a cellar, and all the 
urine voided by the animals has been added to it, it will 
be sufficiently moist. Urine, on account of the large 
proportion of nitrogen it contains, greatly increases the 
tendency to fermentation. In some instances the liquids 
of stables are conveyed to tanks constructed for the pur¬ 
pose, from which the liquid is pumped up and thrown 
over the compost heap. Sometimes the manure is piled 
near the tanks, and is mixed with corn-stalks; peat, or 
any rubbish which it is wished to convert into manure, 
and by means of a spoilt the urine is conveyed over every 
part of the heap. The drainage goes back to the tank, 
so that none is wasted. This is a very good plan, and 
a good compost may be made in this way in a short 
time. 
As to the time required for reducing compost to the 
required state of rottenness, something, of course, will 
depend on the state of the weather, and the nature of 
the materials used, as well as on the extent to which 
the decomposition is to be carried. In cold weather 
more time will be required than in hot weather, and the 
finer and more rotten the manure is to be made, the 
more time will be taken. Some difference of opinion 
exists as to the state in which manure should be applied 
to produce the greatest effect. Rev. W. L. Rham, in 
the “ Dictionary of the Farm,” observes —“ The best 
state in which dung can be carried to the land, is, ac¬ 
cording to the best informed practical agriculturists, 
when the straw is so rotten that it readily breaks into 
short pieces, without having entirely lost its form; it 
should then be of a brown or mahogany color, uniform 
throughout the mass.” This may be a good rule, and 
it is probable that where peat was used in the compost, 
it would have undergone a sufficient fermentation, and 
have become sufficiently impregnated with alkaline salts, 
by the time tfie manure had been,brought into this con¬ 
dition. Practice and observation, however, can soon 
determine the point. 
In this climate, manure is not usually wanted for Indian 
corn before the middle of May, and if it is composted a 
month beforehand, it will generally be found sufficiently 
reduced by the time it is wanted. If it is turned over 
once, the fermentation will be more complete, and the 
mixture of the various materials more perfect. If it is 
not turned over, it should be cut down in such a man¬ 
ner, at the time it is carted to the field, that the coarser 
parts may be made fine, and the whole well mixed. If 
the heap should become too hot while fermenting, as 
may be known by the heat imparted to a stick thrust 
into the middle, holes should be made with an iron bar 
or stout stake, to give ventilation ; or the heap may 
be turned over. If the temperature is so high as to 
heat the stick to the degree that it will burn the 
fingers, when it is drawn from the pile, it is consum¬ 
ing the manure, and should be checked. 
Manner of Applying Manure to the Soil.— 
There is much difference of opinion in regard to the 
best mode of applying manures. Some hold that they 
should always be plowed in, and give as a reason that 
(e manure never goes down, but if lost at all it is by 
evaporation.” Others go counter to this rule in all re¬ 
spects, and contend that 11 surface manuring”is far pre¬ 
ferable—that the valuable principles of manure cannot be 
carried off by the air, but are only in danger of being 
lost by leaching.” The advocates of the two systems 
may be regarded as in a situation similar to the two 
knights who fought over the white and black shield—• 
both are in part right, in part wrong. 
As regards the position that manure is never lost by 
going downward, every man’s observation may have 
taught him that it is an error. Whoever has examined 
the earth under his manure-heaps, or in his barn-yard, 
must have found palpable evidence that the fertilizing 
elements of manure may penetrate to a greater depth 
than is commonly reached by the plow. In one in¬ 
stance within the writer’s observation, the surface of 
the ground where a barn had stood was carried off to 
the depth of eighteen inches to two feet, and yet for 
several years afterwards the spot, (though in the midst 
of a field,) was plainly discoverable in the increased luxu¬ 
riance of the crops it produced. The cases cited may 
be said to be extreme ones, but they show that the 
theory to which we refer is false. 
The idea that nothing can be lost from manure by 
exhalation, does not seem to be any better supported by 
facts than the opposite theory previously considered. 
Carbon and nitrogen, which constitute the chief ele¬ 
ments of manure, are both capable of assuming an aeri¬ 
form state. The nitrogen, which exists in manure for 
the most part in the. form of ammonia, readily becomes 
volatile, and escapes into the air. The escape of this 
substance from manure heaps and fermenting urine, is 
readily perceived by the strong smell emitted. The 
dung dropped on pastures by cattle and horses, does 
comparatively but little good. It mostly dries up, and 
loses its value. If all the strength of it soaked into 
the soil, should we not see a greater effect from it ? 
The urine dropped by animals is immediately absorbed, 
and the effect is sooner or later strikingly seen in the 
rankness of the grass. 
The true point to be observed in the application of 
manures, is to place them where none of their value 
shall be wasted, and at the same time in a situation to 
be acted on by the agents of decomposition. These 
agents are chiefly heat, air, and moisture. Heat is re¬ 
quired, because in its absence substances are without 
change; air is required because oxygen, a kind of air 
and a part of the atmosphere, is the greatest decompo¬ 
sing element in nature; and moisture is required be¬ 
cause its absorption by objects admits the entrance and 
action of oxygen. Light, also, (and perhaps electrici¬ 
ty,) exercises some agency in decomposition. The 
medicines of the doctor and apothecary are some¬ 
times decomposed by the influence of light, even when 
contained in vessels which are perfectly impervious to 
the air. It is on account of this influence that wines 
and other fermented liquors are kept in the dark. Eve¬ 
ry one may have noticed the effect of light in making 
vinegar, and may have seen how the souring process is 
hastened by setting the barrel where the sun will shine 
on it, and by turning the rays on the liquor by putting 
a bottle in the bung-hole. 
