The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1874-06-20
Management of Yard Manure.

Is manure in the heap better for be-
ing covered by a roof VIII il pay to
build open sheds to put it under, boards
costing S2j per thousand? VIII it pay
to use super-sulphate of soda at SlS or
plaster ut Sl5 per ton to fix the ammo
MIA on Is there any other substance
that can be used to advantage and not
too costly ?-E. Thompson, jefferson
County, Y. J.
Answer It Is, Of course, a great
damage TO manure TO drench and +, ach
it with excess of water, and then to dry
it out to a suufTy consistence by expo
sure to hot sun and it is especially bad
to allow these processes to succeed
each other repeatedly. If building
sheds were the only or the most easy
mode of avoiding this damage it would
undoubtedly be in order to put them
no. But there Is a more excellent way,
and it is doubtless better to spend
money in preparing a good bottom for
the manure heaps than TO lay it ont IN
roofing. The dung-yard shauld have,
first, bottom nearly impe&trable to
water. If the soil is a clay or clay
loan that is sufficient, but if graveIy
or coarse sandy, it should be clayed, or
or be hoored with flags or paving stones
cemented with clay. Second, the floor
should be made dishing, so that all the
rain-water falling upon it shall remain,
and, third, the ground should incline
away from it so that rain falling outside
shall not flow in. Fourth, it is good to
have a water-tight pit, or better, a Gov
cred cistern rear the center, which will
hold all the water that may drain from
the manure. Fifth, it is we'll to have
stone wall laid IN cement, some four or
L. IL. l., g
so much space rs the heaps require,
with a passage at either end for teams.
In this yard the manure can be laid
to a final depth of six or eight feet if
needful the rain, however copious, can
carry nothing away. All kinds and
quantities of rough vegetable matter,
muck, straw, weeds, saw-dust, ETC., may
be interstratified for compost hot
horse manure and cold hog manure or
cow-dung may be intermixed. or hot
horse and bullock dung may be di uted
with an inch or two of loan for every
foot of dung. The contents of the els
tern should be frequently pumped up
twice each week. and applied to all the
surface in quantity sufficient to main
tain a Uniform moistness, but not
enough to keep the mass saturated. If
the DRAWINGS be not enough, water
should be supplied in proper quantity.
The surface shauld be kept level and
moderately compact. Finally, when
the manure has accumulated to the full
depth, or the supply ceases, the surface
is covered with few inches of lOamy
or muclty earth, which is a perfect pro-
Under this cover, the uniform and we'll
moistened but not wet mass will fer
ment enough to break up the fiber of
the litter, destroy seeds, and yield a
perfect manure. Any addition of gyp-
sum or sulphate of soda will not be
needed TO fix ammonia, for with this
treatment there will be no loss worth
mention. II some hundred weight of
gypsum and also of fine Charleston or
Navassa phosphate rock and OF German
potash salts or wood ashes be uniformly
intermixed, aa the manure accumulates,
it will be so much the richer and more
valuable for these additions.
Before commencing TO carry the
manure into such yard, a well-trodden
layer of straw, coarse grass, flax, or
similar vegetable matter, or of peat,
swamp tussocks and the like, two feet in
depth, may be put in as a foundation.
The dung liquor will convert it into ex-
cellent manure If manure that is
Mdue uHueE cover OI DouShb 1OI USE -
to be heaped for a mild fermentation,
or TO be kept against the time Of its
use, it may be thrown up in windrow-
like heaps four feet, and as broad at the
base, and be simply covered with any
road scrapings, or any fine soil which,
made into a mud with water, har ems on
drying to crust which viii shed rain.
CalcareOus mud is of this quality, and
n little lime mixed with loan will give
the proper material. Tribune.