Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-08-09
Accumulation of Manures.

1t has been well said that the manure
heap is the Farmers Bank In dcnsely pop
ulated countries, necessity has enforced the
observance of heavy manuring to make up
for limitation Of area. Even in China, they
understand this matter far better than we
do. There, every imaginable thing that
can be converted into manure is carefully
collected. The fat pastures Of Holland owe
their extraordinary fertility TO the same
cause. Land in the populous districts Of
Europe never wears out. There are farms
in England that have been under cultiva-
ton for eight hundred years, and have so
increased in fertility that where three hum
dred years ago they produced but eight
bushels of wheat to the acre, they now yield
forty Even the sandy soils of Norfolk,
meagrc as they were but "a century ago,
have been so lertiized that they now rank
among the finest in the kingdom Our
fault has been the neglect of those fertiliz-
ing elements which others have 50 profita-
bly, utilized. We have sought to do by ex-
ccssive labor, and that of the most slovenly
kind what others accomplish by careful til
lage and high manuring We must Sc, k
to renovate where we have heretofore car
ried off successive crops until the soil was
reduced to the point Of exhaustion. We
must look, first of all, to lime and mari as
the basis of all permanent improvement
We must furnish to the soil those phos-
pilates which nearly all lands require that
have been under cultivation for any great
length of time and to this end, bones re-
fuse feathers, hair of animals, wooden rags,
hoOts and horns of cattle, and the rubbish
Of old houses, are all particularly worthy Of
being collected, broken up and reduced by
fermentation and applied to the land. In for
ming compost heaps, nothing that enters
into the food of plants should be neglected.
Taking one-third of barnyard manure as a
starting point, ALI the rest of the ingredients
of the heap may lie drawn from extraneous
sources. Assuming that the barnyard will
supply thirty loads of horse nd COW ma
nure, this small quantity will suffice to fer
ment and render soluble the materials of a
compost heap, which will make hundred
loads-and the quality Of the fertilizer thus
formed will actually be richer than the
barnyard manure alone because it will
enhance all the constituents that the plant
requires in order to stimulate to a vigorous
growth. \ mere glance at the variety of
post heap will prove this readily. What
can be richer in nitrogen, for instance, than
the blood that may be had at slaughter
houses, or the ollal of animals ? What can
he richer in phosphatcs than the articles al
ready mentioned, and to which we NAV add,
spollt fish of all kinds Besides these, there
are wood ashes, the brine Of salted meat,
soap suds, pond, river and sea mud the
scrapngs Of bitches, turf woods mould sea
weed, moss, old mortar, and even earth
which has been long under cover, r,inasmuch
as it invariably contains proportion of nj
tire.
Here, then, we have supply of mater
ials, all of which contain enriching substan-
ces, and when fermented with the manure
i'll the proportion of about one-third of the
latter to two-thirdS of the former, will prove
Of vast service to any soil to when such
compost may be applied.
But even in the matter of BARNARD ma.
nure we have heretofore been both slovenly
and wasteful We have exposed the heaps
to washing rains and drying suns, and, but
too frequently, we permit its volatile and
lI1uId Products-thc very essence of the
manure, II We may so call ito escape in
" the atmosphere or soak into the soil -
We say nothing with respect to the I'M
heathInfss u homestead that is situated
~ tth jHf0fdia'n vicinity If thrgc cxhala-
fff's. Ihr hss ~ itr volatile products is
jbIsr,sayth aMprytuob T9larg