Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-01-19
Materials for Manure.

The art of making manure is one that
should be thoroughly understood by the
educated farmer. The use of animal
dung should be made the basis of the
system of manuring, and not be depend
ed upon as the sole supply. And when
animal dung is referred to, the litter of
which it chiefly consists is included. No
farm can be sufficiently fortified with
the outcome of the stables alone, unless
a considerable quantity of purchased
food is used in feeding the stock. 1t is
only reasonable that even if the straw,
hay, and portion of the grain raised
on the farm are used there will be de-
ficiency, for the products that are neces-
sarily sold must always remove the larg-
est quantity and the most important ell
ements of the fertility of the soil. But
if manure made from the feeding of
such products as are turned into beef,
mutton, wool, pork, or milk is made to
reduce by its leavening effects, so to
speak, large bulk of organic and min
eral matters into a condition for plant
food, these may help out greatly and
very effectively in supplying the neces-
sary loss of the fertility of the soil, upon
the fruits of which a farmer must sup
port himself and his family and meet
his necessary expenses for the house.
hold. The more manure the farmer can
make in his stables and yards the more
he will be encouraged to use the pur-
chased fertilizers, which are by no
means to be looked upon wholly as
substitute for manure, but as necessary
adjunct to it. There are cases, of
course, such as in market gardening,
where a large quantity of the artificial
fertilizers must be used, because the
stable manure is not to be had; but in
ordinary farming the right use of these
concentrated manures is to reinforce the
effect of the barn manure, and add, as
it were, impetus to the weight of it.
The soil requires not only the elements
of fertility but large admixture of Or
ganic and mineral matter, which shall
remain as a material upon which the
nitrificative action of the germs which
are known to produce this effect can OPP
crate. The old humus theory of Liebig
was merely an attempt to explain this
effect, of which the origin was then I'M
discovered. But under the light of our
present knowledge it is as certain as any
thing not absolutely sure can be certain
that the s'humus," so called, but really
undecomposed vegetable matter in the
soil, is simply one of the materials upon
which the nitrificative agents can work.
It matters little of what this organic
matter may consist, so long as there is
a sufficient supply of it. 1t is for the
farmer to ransack all the sources of sup
ply. Where the farm has a swamp,
this will furnish the most valuable and
a practically inexhaustible fund upon
which to draw; for if it is susceptible of
ample drainage the muck may be cut
down to a depth of several feet in many
cases, and one acre will furnish as much
as can be used in ten years or even
twenty, and yet leave the ground in
better condition for cultivation than be-
fore. If the swamp can not be drained
so completely as to admit of this, it can
be cut into plots of convenient size by
broad, deep bitches, which will drain
the rest of the ground, and leave valua-
BILE water for profitable uses, such as the
culture of fish or aquatic vegetables.
But, as for the most part such wet
swamps are wholly useless and value
less, and q nuisance besides, the turning
of them to good account in this manner
will be a very serviceable operation
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