The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1854-05-17
r~m the southern cui
Fire Fangsd Manure.

The season of the year has arrived
when stable manure Is prone To fire.
fang-a chemical change that lessons
its value from 80 to 60 per cent. To
prevent such a loss is an object Of much
importance in farm economy. and we
will endeavor TO explain the subject in
way that will render il plain to all
interested in providing food for plants.
Few are ignorant Of the fact that a
mass Of dung thrown from stable, aud
particularly that FROM horses sand mules,
is apt 10 heat, and sometimes il proceeds
To spontaneous combustion. This heat
ing is not injurious, if only moderate
in degree, for it always prccedes and
attends fermentation, whether vinaus
or putrefactive. The latter is what the
skiliul farmer desires TO increase the
soIubility Of manure for Nature rofs
vegetable and animal substances to pre-
pare their elements for reorganization
in the cells of living, growing plants.
Fire. fanging is peculiar chemical op-
Grafton analogous to burning wood into
coal, or cl,arring hay aud straw by i'm.
perfect combustion. Ii not only checks
putrefactive fermentation in a manure
heap. but drives of in gaseous state
all the nitrogen and ammonia il may
contain. Half burnt dung aud straw,
(fre-fanged manurc) refuses to ferment,
rot, or dissolve for the nourishment ot
crops, for long time after il is buried
in titled around. Hence, il is not too
much to say that farmer who allows
his dung.heaps to fire>fang really loses
nearly three quarters of the value of
the same, and often more than that.
How one can best prevent this ex-
cess Of heating is the point now to be
considered. IL is done simply Nv
spreading the manure over a greater
surface so thin as not to heat at all,
nor fermcnt, but thicker or thinner ac.
cording to the weather aud the nature
Of the manure. To adopt the language
of farmers, some excrements are of a
more heating nature than others and
no one rule will apply to every condi-
tion and composition Of the dang-heap.
Ii should not, however, be long expos
ed To the open air, rain, and sunshine.
but be covered over with loan, clay, or
vegetable mould. In this state Scotch
farmers call their tlung.hcaps "pies !"
the covering of earth bcing the upper
crust, and one Of clay or leaf-mould
being the un,er-crust. The right ma
nagemen; of these .pies" is quite as
difficult a, the management Of a coal
pit, or burning brick-kiln. All air
must not be excluded, for that would
arrest decomposition. To learn the
condition OF the mass, the farmer sticks
stake into it, which being drawn out,
he learns from the steam, gases and
temperature of the air that issues, how
his pie is baking. Ii the heat is too
great, the heap should be forked over
Immediately to cool it, as you would
separate the sticks in burning brush
heap or YOU may cover il deeper aud
closer to exclude airas you would close
the draft in a coalpit, lime or bricks
kiln. Ii water is convenient, make
stake holes into the heap aud pour wa
ter into them just enough to put out
the latent fire below.
To avoid all less and labor Of this
kind, we prefer to haul most of our
manure in a raw, unfermented state,
into the field, spread and plow it in at
once, and let it rot in the soil. This
cnurse is not always practicable, and
the dung has to be preserved in some
form for future use. To have it rot,
and at the same time decompose good
! deal of corn stalks, straw and forest
leaves, mixed herewith, and lose no.
thing Of its volatile elements, is the
end to be aimed at. ID. LEE.
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