The Lamoille news. (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1877-1881, 1877-05-16
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSE.
now TO USE HEN MANURE.

HOW 10 USE rev "N"
I wish toinquirc, through the Fdrm-
er. how to compost hen manure so as
10 make it suitable to use in the NIL
or otherwise, on field crops. have
some thirty bushels saved during the
wear. which I wish TO use. | have two
or three times tried to compost it, and
use it in cornhills, but not with very
satisfactory results; once in particular
the corn came up tolerably we'll but
did not grow well, aud ON pulling mp
stalks it looked as though the roots
were eaten off. An answer to this in
quiry would be very satisfactory.
A. 5. p.
So. Royalton, April 10.
REMARKs.-Farmers have too little
confidence in the manure they use,
and the plants they grow. They seem
to think that it can do the plants little
good unless it is placed very near
where the seeds are planted. Nor do
they seem to think that plants can
find manure, unless it is very near to
the roots when they first start from
the seeds, but if the manure we use is
considered in the light of plant food,
to be drawaupOn every day until the
plant comes to maturity, then it is
perfectly safe to apply it broadcast
and work it into the soil. Last sea-
son we made several trials with the
Stockbridge fertilizers, of which very
few hundred pounds are sold for an
acre. One unfamiliar with them
would not suppose the plants could
ever find the plant food contained in
them, unless it were placed very near
to the plants. But we had more faith
in the over Of the fertilizers and so,
instead of putting them in the hill or
drill, as most people do, and kill their
plants, We spread the whole broadcast.
The result was, rather slow growth
in the early part Of the season, but the
size of the cornstalks and the large,
plump, well filed ears showed that the
plants did find the fertilizers, and made
GOOD use of them, too. Now, if we
had thirty bushels of good hen manure
to use this spring, we should expect to
realize quite us much benefit from it
spread broadcast and narrowed i'll, as
if composted and put in>the hill; be-
sides, we should thus save no small
amount of laborin shoyelling over and
carting an extra quantity Of loan,
muck, or other composing material.
Yet, if you are determined to use it in
the hill, it may be shovelled over two
or three times with five or six times its
own bulk Of any kind of soil most con-
venient to obtain. When hen manure
kills corn or other plants, planted upon
it, it is because it is not sufficiently
extended by the use Of inert material
or because too large quantity is put
in immediate contact with the seed
The best success we have ever had, il
the use of contracted fertilizers in the
hill, has been where we dropped the
seed and partially covered it with eartE
and then sprinliled the hill for a foot
around with the fertilizer, covering al
with the hoe, leaving the strength Of
the manure to gradually wash down
among the roots, instead Of burning
them up over a decomposing heap Of
fire, as all really strong fertilizers are
if applied upon small spot only anC
under the seed. The heat thrown of
from the barn manure or from chemica
fertilizers, while decomposing, is ben.
fetal to growing plants if it can be
perfectly controlled and graduated tc
the needs of the plants, but if in ex.
cess it is fatal.