The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-06-06 00:00:00

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Agriculture.

FARMYARD MANURE.

(The following are extracts from one of a short coarse of
lectures lately delivered by Mr. Wallace Fyfe before
the Royal Agricultural College.]
As matters at present stand with the farmer, it is
only by a liberal supply of manure to land kept
properly in heart that he can expect to rear remune-
rative crops. He must work and he must weed—he
must plough, grub, etir, roll, harrow; but unless he
puts in the manure he may not be able to calculate
on a due reward for his labour. Undoubtedly there
is a eystem, that known as Lois-Weadon, and there
are instances of land having, as in ancient and why
not ignorant times, been rendered productive by
working alone. But science teaches us that the art
of cultivating between the rows of Wheat—that the
mechanical working and pulverisation of clays, in
which year by year crops of Wheat are grown with-
out manures, smounta in reality to nothing but a
mode of libekating those elements of fertility in the
soil, of which but a limited portion are at one time
found available or in a soluble condition, but which
by the commingling of ingredients which re-act
ea one another, are liberated to a greater extent
than ordinary. Combined with this mode of culti-
vation, it appears to me that the judicious addition I
of manure would wonderfully improve the present
system of cropping, although of course it would ,
be dangerous to omit a proper course of rotations.
This last is an important point to be attended
to by the agriculturist of whatever grade,
whether tenant or proprietor, because we have
for centuries been drawing from the land its
more valuable constituents, and of course, as
this goes on, the cost of cultivation, instead
of being reduced in proportion as the powers
of production in the soil decline, will rather be in-
creased by the extra efforts we must make to keep up
the returns. And this is exactly what'is now taking
place. The enormous sums expended in fertilisers
in Britiah apiculture are however eminently suc-
cessful in keeping the returns up to and even beyond
the mark of expectation. The agricultural chemists
have it all their own way. But as doctors differ so
do they. You are of course aware that they divide
into two grand theories. Liebig favours that known
as the "mineral theory," whilst Meninx Lawes and
Gilbert oppose to it the 'nitrogen theory." The
mineral theory rests its entire reliance on the im-
portance of mineral or saline substances, and main-
tains that if the inorganic constituents of the plant
be sufficiently supplied, the plant will find itself in
nitrogen and carbon, the one in the form of nitric
acid and ammonia, the other in that of carbonic acid
—from the atmosphere. Whereas the nitrogen
theory, aesnmingl the existence in the soil of an
inexhaustible supply of saline substance, with con-
stant accessions from rocky decomposition and dis-
integration, holds in fact that there is already •
surplus of plant food or pabulum in the soil, requir-
ing only the addition of ammonia to develop the
growth of plants. That there are soils more or
less destitute of the mineral food of plants this theory
does not gainsay; it holds however that in general
there exists an excess of this, of which plants are
precluded from participating because of the difficulty
of absorbing ammonia from the„air, whilst the addi-
tion of ammoniacal salts in the soil supplies the
stimulant that enables the crop to become more pro-
ductive. No doubt the truth lies somewhere betwixt
these conflicting theories. It is certain that of an
excess of mineral matter the plant cannot take
advantage without a corresponding excess of
gaseous food; and that this last can only be supplied
by adding to the soil substances IN hence the roots of
the plant may obtain it. To this demand we are
obliged to conform under an advanced condition of
cultivation which asks a yield of thrice or four times
the amount with which the farming of only a few
years ago would have remained content. In a well
cultivated soil the plant, however, finds not only
mineral food, but the decomposing remains of plants
grown in former years, which supply carbocic acid
and ammonia, that add materially to its develop.
ment. Agricultural chemists formerly thought that
whatever was taken up from the soil by the roots of
the plant mast be soluble in water, and that nothing
else was available for the growth of the plant. But
Liebig's more recent doctrine is that the roots them-
selves possess an inherent power of solution over
mineral substances, although it is indispensable that
water should be present.
Farmyard Arawere has been termed by Dr. Voelcker
a universal perfect mamma, because it contains all the
elements to be found in the soil. Manures in the form
of cattle dung and ordinary farmyard composts have
indeed been known and employed from time imme-
morial for the purposes of fertilisation. Of the con-
stituents of farmyard manure nitrogen is the first in
value, phosphorus the ,next ; and the great object in
its economy or management should consequently be to
preserve these constituents, which are evolved in the
I dung-heaps during the process of putrefactive fermen-
tation, and are carried to the soil in the respective forms
I of ammonia and phosphates. The change which occurs
I in the fermentation of dung-heaps is this: In

Per Cent.

The organic matter is ...
And the inorganic

Fresh Rotted
Dung. Dung.
83.48 68.24
16.52 31.76
10000 10000

And were it not that excellent fixers of the ammonia
are formed within the heap whilst this is going on, con-
siderable deterioration would ensue from the process.
This manure, r we all know, is composed of excrementi-
tious matters of the live stock of the farm, intermixed
with straw or other materials used as bedding or litter
for the animals. Thus, whilst 100Ibs. of farm-yard
manure are considered equal to 1251b5. of the solid
excrements of rthe cow,.they are:equal onlylto 9111 a of
the liquid excrements of the cow, to 73Ibs. of the solid
and to only 16Ibs. of the liquid excrements of the home.
Still it is found that to apply for any length of time any
one manure is distasteful to the soil, and such continued
application, however rich in nitrogen, is productive of
failure and disappointment in the results. It has been
estimated, in regard to the production of dung, that one
horse or cow yields per:annum ten lceds for a two-horse
waggon, and a young ox or cow five loads; that one
horse fed in the stable yields 15 loads of dung, and one
turned out to grass 74 loads; no that, calculating at the
rate of 20 loads of cattle dung per acre, or 18 of home
dung, an ox may be said to manure half an acre, a
young ox • quarter of an acre, and a stable-fed horse
as much as five-sixths of an acre. A horse fed, however,
principally on corn will yield dung equal in value to
one which consumes twice as much weight of hay ; and
it is quite obvious how the food of the animal affects
the excretions, and why the excreta from corn or cake
should be vastly superior in value to that of an animal
subsisting on straw. The age and character of the
animal produce also corresponding results. A full-
grown animal 'Wrests from its food only the materials
necessary to replace the were of its body. A griming
animal not only does the same, but moreover the addi-
tions required to build up its skeleton, muscles and
trues. The matured animal does not separate the
phosphate of lime required for the bones, or so much
gluten and nitrogenous compounds for its flesh. Thus,
' with a full grown animal the manure may be taken to
represent all the constituents present in the food, with
exception of the carbon wasted in respiration. All
breeding and milli-producing animals severely im-
poverish the food they receive, and hence their manure
Is of less value. These facts I adduce to show you that the
conditions under which farm-yard manure may be pro-
duced, differ so materially as to render analysis useless.
Of course, also, the proportions misting between the
straw or litter need and food consumed alter and affect
its value. Everything depends upon the management
Dr. Voekker in one experiment found 9611 b. of dry
manure reduced in six months to 6891 b., and in one year
to 60711,. The soluble organic) matter he at first found
to be 701 b. ; in the course of six months it became 861 b,
bat exposure to rain in three month reduced it to 501 b,
In other experiments 100 cwt of fresh dung became re-
duced to 80 owt. when half rotted, 60 cwt. when "fat
and cheesy," and to about 46 cwt when completely de-
cemPesed : 100 cwt. of dung contains when fresh, 401 b.
Dilltogen ; but these are dissipated in the form of
veletas ammonia—during fermentation in the first
period Db., in the second 10111, and in the third 20th.
'no It h that theorists maintain that since dung when
At* &Composed may safer a, reduction of one-half in
bulk and value, it is better to apply it fresh to the land
to prevent the loei of its volatile gases and drainiegs
from the heap. Thus also the protected manure formed
ig the box-feeding plan is contrasted with the farm-yard
dung of the open pit,as richer in ammonia and in soluble
,eonsnitaento, both organic and inorganic. Accordinglto
Dr. Italian a—
NOi CO
NAM,' SereAnfe I MM FAZIPTAIDi
ws ammonia. Nitrogen .eatelto'hisi.
1.70 ... .'' ' 1.04
Organic mattess' re-
- movable by water LB2
litorganie do. viz.:—
} 2.78

Nilrasa
137 .

7L04 I

true of Urn., and •
liderable quantity
riliaa not determined.