The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-08-30 00:00:00

agriClatUrt.
THE CHEAPEST WAY OF MANURING
THE FARM.

(From the Agriesitoral Gazdte.)

One of the most important subjects on which the
English Agricultural Society asked for the experience of
its member' in its last year's essay prize list, was the
cheapest way of manuring the farm—whether by direct
purchases of fertiliaers, ,ir by feeding the cattle and sheep
of the tarsi on porch,. food. Of course the answer to
au., a question depends on the relative pricesof cattle food
with live atock and of manures respectively. It depends
also on the judgment used in purchasing live stock, and
in adapting the food given them to both their character
and their condition. There would be excessive waste in
giving rich food to ill-bred stock, and there would be
great folly in refusing well-bred cattle the food which
would enable them the most quickly to exhibit their
precocity and rapidity of growth. It is to an error of
one or other of these two kinds that we inay attribute
Mr. Mechi's account of the live stock of the farm as •
necessary evil—necessary because, after all, the manure
of the farm is required, whatever the facilities for the
purchase of mineral and imported manures may be—
but an evil because of the loss attending the manufacture
of meat—it has often proved the largest source of the
farmer's profit even without taking the value of the
manure mule at the same time into account., and in
such a case there is of course no difficulty in determin-
ing whether the manure so provided or that procured
directly from the market is the cheaper of the two. It
is, however, ns giving general experience, and as com-
paring the enhanced value of the manure to be obtained
by the use of an increased quantity of cattle food, with
the cost of so much additional guano, used in its place,
that the information sought would be so valuable. And
this is what the etsayists of the English Agricultural
Society, judging front the report of the Journal Coin-
mittee, have failed to give. It is a subject to which we
should be glad if our correspondents would direct their
attention; and as a contribution to it we here append
an extract fnim a very interesting letter which appeared
some months ago in the columns of the Mark Lase
E.rprros, and which we loul hoped would have raised
that discussion of the subject which is so desirable.
. . . .

A oorrespondent writing from Kent asks—" Ought we
to make or to purchase our manures? Can we make
farmyard dung at such • prioe, when compared with
guano, rape-dust, or superphosphate. as to render it
worth our while to undertake the task ?" He adds, "I '
bought in January lie-t four Dutch beasts for £45,
forward in flesh, and two years old. They were fed '
exactly three months (13 weeks) at a oost of exactly
EA without labour interest of money, or value of
litter. The food, which rather increased in quantity as
they would bear it, averaged about 9lbs. linseed-cake,
half a gallon bean-meal, half a gallon crushed foreign
barley, half a bushel pulped wane' or sweeds, 1 bushel of
chopped hay and straw, with a handful of long hay
occasionally, per head per day. They were sold out, one
by weight at Be.' another by weight at 41. fid., and two
in the market, for • gross; sum of £75, leaving • loss of
kt on the cost of food and purchase, or, with attendance
and shod rent very moderately reckoned, a loss of 27105.
"Can anyone tell me, clearly and certainly, whether
this transaction did involve • loss or not? In other
words, is there any formula of reasonable accuracy,
whereby I may determine what portion of the LIG spent
upon them in food was left behind us their excreta alone,
in lily sheds and dung pit?
" In one of my drawers is a phaniphlet of Mr. Mechi's,
in which he endeavours to prove, and does aimed, that
El given to pigs in beans will produce 20s. worth of
pork. If true, who than could not make • foVtune!
But, unluckily, it is not true by • long way. On the
table before inc lies • phamplilet on guano, by Mr.
Nesbit, wherein is written, 'lt appears to be clear that,
unless the oileake affords • profit by the beef or mutton,
a wore expensive system (than making dung by cattle)
of manuring mull not well be pursued.' Mr. ifechi's
chief object, if I remember right, in more than one
publication, is to affirm the principle that success in
fanning varies directly with the amount of stock kept.
On the other hand, we are told by an unanimous resolu-
tion of the Botley Farmers'Club,"That where there is not
sufficient dung for the wheat (?) crop, it is inure profit-
able to purchase the concentrated manures than dung;
and that an equal amount of money expended in the
purchase of concentrated manures will raise more wheat
than the seine amount expended in the purchase of oil-
cake or corn, and converted into dung by feeding cattle.'
As it stands, the resolution means nothing, and involves
• fallacity, as no one ever supposes that £l2 worth of
°deske would, after giving LI or £lO worth of beef, still
afford an increase in manure equal to 1 ton of guano;
if it did even half this, the transaction would be largely
profitable.
" While the bullock feeling above alluded to was
going on, I commenced another experiment, by purchas-
ing for the benefit of 21 acres of light poor land
intended for Wurzel, 54 two-year-old Kent sheep, and
feeding them very liberally in folds upon it. The sheep
cost £93, and they consumed in three months cake,
maize, beans, barley, and turnips, with hay and straw
chaff, to the amount of £44 45., making a total cost,
without hurdles and attendance, of £137 4s. I sold
them out, chiefly at 54. Bd. per stone in the wool, for
£135; time sinking £2 45., besides interest, lee. for the
manure obtained. It is very probable that both with
the bullocks and the sheep rather better results might
have been obtained, especially at the present excellent
prices, had the total cost for feeding been spread over
a rather longer period of time, but that does not affect
my present object, which is to elicit if possible an
accurate and trustworthy estimate of the value per
week of the actual droppings of a medium-sized bullock
and sheep while being liberally fed on cake and corn."