American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-11-21
Making Manure on the Farm.

EVERY farm should furnish its own re-
sources for manure; for, although, near
cities, the wise farmer avails himself of
whatever waste matter he can get that
is convertible into manure, the crops
there cultivated are generally of AN eX-
hausting nature and fully sufficient to
carry off the extra fertility so added.
But only Il comparatively small number
of farms are situated near enough to
cities so that their owners can avail
themselves of this source of increasing
the crops and, therefore, the great num-
Der are obliged to fall back upon the re-
sources of the farm itself.
1t is an English maxim that "a good
farm is like good joint of meat, that
only requires basting with its own drip
ping" Translated it means that a good
soil contains within itself all the re-
sources of increased fertility. 1t is true
the joint of meat must have been first
made good: and so must the farm. Man
must feed the animal to get the good
joint; nature originally fed the soil
ready for man.
How many who have opened new
farms on virgin soils have left them as
good as they found them? The history
of al countries answers, Very few Mar
| first impoverishes and then, by the most
! laborious and costly means, refertiliZe:
| the worn soil. How quickly the farmer:
of the West are bringing their lands tC
that state when this liberalization viii
be the all-important question, the de
creased and constantly decreasing aver
ages of grain per acre will tell. We dc
not mean by this that the time has ye
come in the West when it has become
imperatively necessary that an elaborate
| system of making manure and compos
should be followed, although it nigh
easily be demonstrated that in many
sections such course would be profita
Bile. Nevertheless, the time has come
when it will pay a heavy interest on tn,
investment to save carefully and Civ,
back to the soil whatever manure il
made from the feeding of animals, an(
this brings us to the point we wished t.
| make.
The growing of clover and the grasses
lies at the foundation of profitable farm
ing throughout the temperate zone
These furnish the cheapest food 70
stock of every kind, exclusively so il
summer, and are the main dependence o
stock animals in winter. No crop is Sc
constant in growth, early and late, unde
all kinds of treatment; no other crop i
so well adapted to a variety of soils, we
and dry, heavy or light; none other fur
nishes SO great a burthen to the soil il
| its tops and roots for blowing under o
w
support successive crops of othe
growths; none SO ameliorates the sol
and renders it capable of furnishing tn,
best conditions for promoting the hes
results from such crops as are grown TO
sale.
Again, he who raises plenty of gras
has resources for the feeding of stool
and for making large quantities of ma
nure. In the summer the manure i
| al u-hn tl,.. al
ing under the sward produces large crop
of corn and other grain to be sold or fe'
to stock. If fed as it should be it give
an increased amount of the richest ma
nure, for it must be remembered that tn
value of manure is just in proportion t
the value of the food consumed by tn
animal. If the animal be fed straw onl
the manure is but the refuse of straw, Il
the animals SO fed are but the skeleto II
of their types; and the farmer who feed
his farm from the manure OF ill-kep
stock is sure to have II soil producin
more straw than grain. High feedin
makes high manuring possible, high ma
nuring makes fat land, and fat Ian
makes rich farmers.
In this we do not propose to overtur
the generally-recogniZed systems of feed
ing in the West. f we were at present er
gagged in fattening cattle in CeRtral Ind
ana, ILLINOIS,, Iowa dnu~Otnef sections
the great corn zone of the West, we shoul
follow, in Il measure, the usual plan O
feeding the cattle in the fields in goo
weather, and allowing swine to CLEAN tn
droppings. Thus scarcely anything
lost, and, provided the animals are keI
secure from storms, there is no question
! ing the economy of the method whc
corn is cheap and labor scarce and higi
The question of how to feed every farm
or must decide for himself and TIL
every practical, thoughtful man wi
naturally do. The man who makes grail
, farming his exclusive business with
! view to selling the grain and burnin
+ the straw or feeding it to cattle alway
ends in impovcrishing his farm and ult
matcly HIMSELF he is drawing constan
ly upon his principal. The first few ycal
, it is true this must often he done.
followed up it must ultimately end
disaster And yet how many men in I'll
West think this the perfection of farm
, ingl
We might go on and fill pages in show
. ing the various resources that might b'
} come available on any farm in the NAL
ing of manurc-the ineXhaustible beds {
muck everywhere found, peat, the scral
/ ings of bitches, ashes, lime and plaster
the liquid manure of stock, reall
the most valuable, and usual
z entirely lost; the Stops of the kitche
I and the water used in washing; the COZ
= tents of privies, accumulations of bone
waste animal and other matter that lit,
yards, bctoul store rooms or decay