Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-08-26
UNION AND AMERICAN.
FARM AND GARDEN.
FACTS WORTH KNOWING ABOUT
MANURE.

Lord Kincaid, a Scotch land owner
and farmer, had the good sense 70 learn
by direct experiment the relative value
Of stable manure kept some months
under shelter and protected from all
rain or snow, and similar manure ex.
posed to the weather IN a way once
very common IN Great Britain, and
still not very uncommon IN the United
States. Four acres of good soil were
measured, two of them were MANFRED
with ordinary barn-yard manure, and
two with an equal quantity of manure
from a covered shed. The whole was
planted with potatoes. Theproduct of
each acre was as follows:
Potatoes treated with barn-yard
manure:
One acre produced 90 bushels.
One acre produced 292 bushels.
Potatoes MANFRED from the covered
sheds:
One acre produced 442 bushels.
One acre produced All bushels.
The next year the land was sown
with wheat, when the crop was as
follows:
Wheat on land treated with barn
yard manure:
One ac1e produced forty-one bushels
eighteen pounds, (Of sixty-one pounds
per bushel.)
One acre produced fOrty-twO bushels,
thirty-eight pounds, lof sixty-one
pounds per bushel)
Wheat on land MANFRED from cover.
ed sheds:
One acre produced ffty-fve bushels,
FIVE pounds, (Of Ezty-One pounds per
bushel.)
One acre produced ffty-eight bush
els, forty-seven pounds, (of sizty-one
pounds per bushel)
The straw alsoyielded e-third more
upon the land fortified with the ma
nure from the covered stalls than upon
that to which the ordinary manure was
applied.
1t is amazing that any farmer should
have thought that the daily drOppings
Of animals in cow-yards and barn-yards
could be washed and leached by rains
for months, and alternately dried and
burnt in the sun, and not seriously d.
minish the fcrtilizing power of such
droppings. Nearly all of the rich salts
Of lime, potash, ammonia and magne-
STA are washed out by months of ex-
posure before the yard manure is col
lected and hauled into the field. Agri-
cultural salts should be dealt with
very differently. They are soluble In
rain water, and should 60 from the
stable or shed to the ground to be ma
nured. In this way stall feeding cat
tie, sheep, hogs and horses pays by the
large crops Of wheat, corn, potatoes,
tobacco and cotton that may be raised.
We are some forty years behind
Scotch and Englishmen in the art of
making and using manure on the farm.
They buy our cotton seed and haxseed
cake, our corn and wheat TO feed fat
ting stock, and produce the richest sort
Of homemade manure from which fifty
five bushels Of wheat are grown on an
acre, and over four hundred bushels of
potatoes. Poor cOw-pen droppings viii
not turn out such crops. Cattle must
eat the richest kind of food, like corn
meal, oats, millet seed, or cotton seed
cake. Good clover forms valuable ma.
nure. We have been trying forty
years to make all farmers understand
the reason IUhy one ton of this common
manure is worth only sixty cents, while
ton of Peruvian guano (the dung of
BIRDS, is worth 8isty dollars.
The salts saved by merely
sheltering manure gave Lord Kincaid
about one hundred bushels Of potatoes
more to the acre than he would have
raised without the shelter. Even in
the next crop of wheat, the gain was
nearly fourteen bushels. The best
plant food is often volatile, and always
soluble in water. It is easily lost by a
stupid man who takes no pains to raise
full crops Of grain, vegetables, cotton,
or fruit. To make a poor article of
manure, and waste two-thirds Of that,
is calculated to bring manure'making