Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-12-10
vOJ, JJV. NEW SERIES, VOL. NNVII.
AGRICULTURAL.

The waste of fertilizers upon the laim
has been, in one way or another, the
theme Of nearly all who have earnestly
tried to improve the results of aSncul-
ture by increasing the crops. renovatnS
exhausted lands. and maintaining pro
fitable husbandry L have probably at
tended farmers meetings during more
than hundred days, and have heard Yer
mont's needs and wants set forth i'll al
most every way, but no speech or essay
has been So instructive on the subject of
saving the urine from stabbed cattle as the
practice of two citizens in this vicinity.
Mr.. II. Story is an enthusiastic farmer,
but with only the means of other farmers
who have good farms and are in debt He
believes i'll manure, and his farm responds
well to its application. His stables have
no basement, and the manure Is thrown
from the windows into the open yard.
Some bedding is used, but he conceived
that there was loss of the urine. So III
the fall of 1879 he took up the iioor OF
stable where fourteen cows were kept,
and dug pit under its whole length
about five feet deep. and with sloplng
sides, so that il was about ten feet across
on top, and four or five feet at the bot
tom. He finished it Dee list, and put
the floor down rs tight as before. In the
spring the liquid was two and half feet
deep. He drew il out IN tub holding
hundred gallons, and had forty loaos. 1t
was pumped out, and the stopper III the
bottom of the tub could he removed with
out stopping the team. The distributor
scattered it as wide as the wagon. He
found it easy and comfortable getting it
out-much more SO than 10 handle solid
manure. During the past summerhe has
put pit under another stable. and the
earth that he dug out has proved very
good dressing for grass. These pits are
cemented upon the earth sides, and are
considered water-tight.
There may be some farmers who have
cellars below their stables. and think that
they save pretty much all the urine, but
the experience Of another farmer III tins
vicinity proves that the solids in cellar
do not absorb the fluids. \ stable hold
ing sixteen cows is above the basement,
and alongside the manure piles below
there is another stable. with PIT below
it, that takes the drainage from both
stables. This pit has been in use. about
twenty years. The present proprietor
has occupied the premises about thirteen
years When he first bought the place
he esteemed the wafer in the pit Of little
value, and did not get ii ont for two or
three years bnt when he didappiy II the
increase of the grass crop was so wonder
full that now he gets it out twice a year
and has sixty hoGsheads each time. He
draws il in an old molasses hogshead,
and therefore that is his unit Of measure.
These two cases are all there are in tins
country, | think, and this method Of saw
ing the liquid manure is not common in
Vermont vet 1t would. if generally prac-
ticed, nearly double the fertilizers OF the
farm. II is the Improvement that ismost
important upon eastern farms. Prof. 5.
W. Johnson teaches that the plant food
in the urine is available, or assimilable,
as soon as applied the nitrogen isadapt-
ed for immediate use; urea enters plants
unchanged and equals ammonia salts.
There may have been many tests made
and put on record of the amount OF water
cows will drink, and the weight of urine
voided, but | can refer to only two In
Johnson's Agricultural Chemistry. page
464, one test is Is, coo pounds the other
$50 pounds annually. Perhaps 1t would
be safe to estimate the annual yield of n
COW to be 10000 pounds, or five tons.
Each farmer can multiply this by the
number of his COWS. If his farm needs
nitrogen, potash, or soda, will he buy 1t
as a commercial manure and allow tons OF
these elements of plant food TO sink away
into the earth through the stable floor, or
in the barn cellar ?-Z. Z. j. HdS6ugh,
H.. in Country Gentleman.