The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-10-24
MANURE.

Abundant opportunities still continue
for the work of making manure and
composts. At this time of year man
may be proftably employed with a
horse and cart in collecting materials
for this purpose. A vast amount of
vegetable matter is found of every form,
positively injurious where it is, but
capable of becoming valuable if broken
down by decomposition and made avail
able for the use of other generations of
plants. The road serapings, bits of
turf, pine skaters, weeds and briers
from the fence lines, waste from the
house, chamber slops, &c, all may be
incorporated together in piles and make
a large quantity of manure, which no
good farmer can afford to neglect
Placed in a dished hollow where the
DRAWINGS may be retained, and mixed
with an occasional layer of stable ma
nure, and from time to time watered,
the heap will rapidly decompose. The
advantage of this process does not in
deed seem thoroughly understood, and
a recent number of the n Y TINES
thus alludes to the Importance Of max
ing these composts as one of the most
effectual and inexpensive means of Sc
curing the costly manurial element
NITROGEN:
When vegetable matter decays in
moist air ammonia is produced, and
when other substances, such as iron
filings or other metallic matter, are
oxidized in moist air, ammonia is also
formed. This would lead US to sup
pose reasonably, that the absorption of
oxygen by any substance, whether it be
organic or disorganic, would give rise
to the formation of ammonia, which is
readily changed to nitric acid. A large
quantity of saltpetre, or nitrate of pot
ash, combination of nitric acid and
potash, is manufactured for the pur-
pose of the arts by what are known as
"nitre beds" These are made by
heaping ordinary soil from fields, hedge
rows, bitches, gardens or roadsides, in
layers with lime or ashes and stable
manure or animal and vegetable mat
tiers. These heaps are watered with
liquid manure or urine, and occasional
ly turned and exposed to the air. After
time-some months, generally-these
heaps are taken down and washed or
leached, when the water which comes
from the soil is found to contain more
or less nitrates of lime, potash, soda,
or magnesia, and these are manufactur-
ed into the saltpetre of commerce The
greater the quantity of animal or vege-
table matter in heaps, the greater the
quantity of ntrates produced, but yet
they are produced to some extent even
without the presence of these organic
matters. But it is well known that the
quantity of nitrates produced is always
in excess of that which could possibly
be produced by the complete oxidation
of the whole of the nitrogen in the Or
ganic matters in the mixture. This ex-
cess is so conspiculously large as to
show most conclusively that the forma-
ton of the nitric acid is only commence
ed by the decay of the organic matters
of the heap, and that it continues at
the expense of the nitrogen of the at
mosphere only. This is more conclu-
sively shown by the fact that these
entire beds " are more productive when
a portion of the soil is only removed
for washing at one time, and the wash
ed earth returned again to the opposite
side of the heap, than when the whole
is washed at once. A leaven, as it
We're, of active matter is needed to set
the nitrification or the heap in action
The intelligent farmer, used to compost
iug'the waste materials of his farm in
exactly this manner, cannot fail to see