Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-04-28
Che former.
Agricultural Readings, No. ].
LIQUID MANURE.

Agricultural IsoauAaSS3 N"' -
LIQUID MANURE.
r,o snh;ect of Liquid Manure is one which
often been considered in agricultural
h hao and periodicals, although it has never
~ tb;s country received much attention from
Az ~ ala class Of men who are the most deeply |
Interested IN, in lis value the practical farm
i"s MANY persons in England, who have
taLon deep interest in agriculture, and
'Laso immense wealth has enabled them,
without regard to profit and loss, to make
a,,oh investments in the trial Of experiments
90 their caprice or judgement suggested, have
made large expenditures III the preservation
and disposition of Liquid Manure. But,
whatever may be the result OF these opera
t;ons thew have generally been conducted on
. scale SO vast and at au outlay so protuse,
that they are rather for our admiration and
instruction, than our imitation.
The Massachusetts Society for the promo
t;on Of Agriculture, melted by praiseworthy
desire to furnish such aids in the composition
and preservation of manures, as would be
valuable to the practical farmer offered,
uranium of one hundred and fifty dollars for
the best Essay on the Preparation and APP
plication OF Manures. The premium was
awarded to DR.. Joseph Reynolds, OF Con-
cord; and portion of the Essay is devoted
to the consideration of Liquid Manure. He
recommends that the stalls of cattle be SO ar
ranged as to receive their urine into troughs
and in this way conduct it to large tank or
cstern in the cellar or outside the barn from
whence it may be pumped into water cart,
with sprinkler attached, and thus distributed
to the lands. This is cumbrous method Of
preserving the Liquid Manure Of the barn
and one not very likely to commend itself to
eyery-day-farmers To secure the highest
advantage from this distribution it must be
spread upon the ground during the growth of
vegetation, so that tank sufficiently large
to hold all the urine made during six
months winter, would be necessary for a
New England farmer. This would require a
large, original outlay, while the distribution
to our hill farms would be attended with
much labor and expense. Whatever other
value may belong to this Essay, we think
very little attaches to this portion of it. The
expense of the troughs, of the cistcrn, the
labor of pumping it up Into the distributing
CARTS the distribution, &C., &c, render
the whole thing so much a matter Of expense
and labor, that no ordinary amount of goot
could be considered a sufficient compensation
Yet, although, we do not believe in til
general practicability of this method OF pre-
serving a d distributing Liquid Manure, W
do believe it is of great value and with littl
expense may be made to add greatly to til
productiveness of our Vermont farms, 1t
a well es ablisned fact, that we cannot affor
to buy imported manures; and it is a we
established, that unless we have manures o,
lands will 500 become exhausted The fir
great study of all thrifty agriculturalist
then is the economy of manures ;-manurt
forming the basis of all farming operations
That our Liquid Manure is valuable,
man who has taken pains to learn its chen
cal ingredients or watched its effect when d
tributed by a watering-pot, on some flowe
or vegetable bed, will for moment questio
that, to a very large extent, it is now
nearly all farmers, wasted and lost is equal
certain. How, then, can it be preserved il
cheap and practicable manner? This que
ton we purpose to answer and advise ;
farmers, who wish to realise the full vail
Of their manures,to give our answer a caref
consideration.
In the Autumn as a part of the necessa
provision for the winter, let every farm
purchase quantity of Gypsum or Plaster,
say, from half ton upwards the exper
OF whch-wll be in the vicinity of fifty Gel
per hundred pounds. Keep it in barrels
your barn; every morning after the cat
are cleaned out sprinl lie little over (
entire floor in the rear Of the cattle and
its chemical action, the plaster thus sprinkl
will mix and hold the valuable principle
the Liquid Manure so that it can be shovel
up from day to day and placed with the so
excrements in the cellar of the barn.
plaster cannot be readily had Or if the {
pense be an objection, swamp or pond mu(
apple pomace or saw-dust distributed in mu
larger quantities will produce the same
suit.
No farmer who has once tried this manr
of securing to himself the value of his Liql
Manure will ever abandon it for it v
nearly if not quite double the value Of
Spring manure heap.
We purpose at future time to say SOL
thing of the value of Liquid Manure chez
cally considered.