Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-11-27
Agricultural Department.
From the Southern Culvator
BARN.YARD MANURE. ..C0MPOSTS AND
GREEN CROPS.
BARN.YARD MANURE

soil with vegetable matter or humus, as cheaply
as a judicious rotation of crops or the turning
in of green crops. If this be true, it is obvi
ously the policy of the farmer to make his
barn.yard manure as concentrated as possible,
to decrease the expense of hauling and apply
ing it. The two things to be gotten rid Of in
the concentrating process, are woody fibre and
water The former is usually present in large
quantity, because so much straw, leaves, &C.,
are added to the excrement of stock, either as
bedding or for increasing the quantity Of ma
nure. We do not mean to convey the idea
that the straw and leaves furnish nothing but
the woody fibre; they contain almost every
thing that serves as plant food-but these lat
ter substances are present in very small guam
tity compared with the woody fibre.
Straw ought to be returned to the land upon
which it grew, unless it can be utilized to ad-
vantage as food for stock. This is practicable
by cutting it up fine, or "chafing," rs it is
termed in England, where it is done quite ex-
tensvely by machines made for the purpose.
The "chaffed" straw is mixed with turni ps or
other succulent food or with green hay, alb
sorbing from its moisture and flavor; and in
both Of these combinations, is highly relished
by stock. AS suggested in our last, the best
plan, if practicable, would be to gather the
heads of small grain and leave the straw upon
the land to be buried by the plough. No ad-
vantage is gained by mixing it with the ex-
crement, except that the putrescible nature of
the latter induces change in the straw mixed
with it, and the straw is thus decomposed
sooner and it's ingredients more quickly
brought within the reach Of plants.
LETTERING WITH LEAVES.
The ordinary practice of putting leaves in
stalls and stable yards involves a double
handling; once when gathered in the woods
and hauled to the stable, and in. the second
place, when as part ofthe stable manure it is
carried to the field Would it,not be better to
carry them directly to the field? The only
advantage of putting them in the stalls, is
that already given when speaking of straw,
to.wit: speedier decay. Sometimes rapid de-
composition is desirable and advantageous; /;
but we have seen pine leaves bedded on in the
fall, make good crops of cotton. As gener-
al rule, it would pay better to haul the leaves
from the woods nearest each field, to that
field and distribute them at once. Let this
be done in the fall or early winter if the leaves
must be used-and the ensuing spring open
the drills in which they have been placed and
put in or among them, stable manure, cotton
seed, or other fertilizer. We shall never
make much in the way Of clear profit at the
South, until we learn to use less labor. We
must save 1t at every point-study necessarily
how given result may be reached with the
least amount of it-investigate increasingly
how much of it can be dispensed with, by sub
stituting in its stead horsepower, machines,
fertilizers and especially brains. A farmer
will spend $500 to $4,000 year for the la
Dor mployed in cultivating one acre and yet
be Mortified at the idea Of putting $500 worth
of fertilizers upon it, when the $500 worth of
fertilizers will make the $500 worth of labor
produce t,uice as much. But says the routinist,
I don't miss the time or the labor in hauling
leaves to my stalls. I have the hands and
the teams, and in wet times cannot employ
them in any other way more advantageously.
That depends much upon how you have ar
ranged your work A thoughtful farmer who
does not stop in good weather to do things
which can be done in bad-will find an abun-
dance of profitable work for the latter. Corn
shucking, grain-threshing, wood-cutting and
hauling, fence repairing, cutting bitches,
cleaning of old ones, grubbing, clearing land,
removing rocks, repairing implements, ma.
king plough stocks, gates, axe helves, hoe
helves, &C., will furnish abundant employment
in wet weather for all the hands which ought
to be on farm.
MANURE WITHOUT BEDDING OR LITTER.
But says an objector, admitting that it is
L. lSk H., of
nv, how can they be made comfortable for
stock without some absorbent for the urine ?
We answer; in the first place make the stalls
larger-not less than 10 10 feet space for
each animal-and remove the manure from
the stall but once year, or when you are
ready to haul it to the field. Never take it
out to make composts-handle 1t but once. In
all cases let the floor of the stable be dirt !;
supposing it situated on high, dry ground,
dig out each stall to depth of 10 or II
inches; make the bottom smooth and ram it
down we'll. Itisn ready. Perhaps little
litter at the start is advisable, but in few
DAYS the solid excrement will absorb all the
LIQUID, which does not evaporate from so large
surface at 100 feet-especially if care is ta-
ken from time to time to throw the dry por-
tions around the edges, under the manger, &c.,
on that part where the urine is most frequent
ly deposited. We have kept horses and mules
in this manner for years, without any trouble
whatever and with less soiling of their hides
and less offensive odor in the stables, than in
those cleaned out every day.
But what, says one, about that evaporation
of the urine; is there no loss there? None.
The auater evaporates, Gone of the things we
are most anxious to get rid of, because no one
wants to haul that to his feld) but the solids,
dissolved in the water and which give the
urine its great value, are left behind. You
can put the urine of horse in retort and
apply heat so as to evaporate all the water,
and every grain of the ammonia forming SUBJ
stances it contained, and all the phosphates,
potash, &C., will be left in the retort.
COW MANURE.
The manure of cattle is more difficult to
manage In the first place, it is less concen-
trated or more bulky than that of the horse;
in other words, contains much larger quan-
tity of woody fibre in proportion to the am
monia forming substances and the valuable
salts, than the latter Moreover, during the
warm season particularly, cow manure has a
much larger quantity of water, compared with
solid matter, than that of the horse. During
winter when cattle are fed largely upon dry
forage, their manure can be managed like
that of the horse. But in summer, there is no
better plan perhaps than the old.fashioned
one of "cow-penning," where a small enclos
ure is broken up with the plough before the
cattle are turned upon it, that the urine may
be readily absorbed and then ploughed up oc-
casionally afterward to incorporate the drop