Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-03-06
Barn.Yard Economy.

A dark stream, often 1t golden color,
always Of golden value. flows to waste
from many an American barn-yard.
This liquid fertility often enters the
side ditch of the farm lane, sometimes
of the highway, and empties into a
brook, which removes it beyond the
reach of plants that would greatly pro-
fit by il. Mice may knaw hole into
the granary and daily abstract small
quantity of grain, or the skunks may
reduce the profits of the poultry yards,
but these leaks are small I'll comparison
with that from the poorly reconstructed
and ili-kept barn-vard. The most valu-
able part of manure is that which is
very soluble, and unless it is retained
by some absorbent, or kept from the
drenching rains. it will be quickly out
of reach. Manure is a manufactured
product, and the success of all farm
operations in the older States depends
upon the quantity and quality of this
product. Other things beihg sdtai,
the farmer who comes out in the Spring
with the largest amount of the best
quality Of manure, will be the man who
finds farming pays the best. A barn
yard, whether on side-hill or on q
level, with all the rains free to fall upon
the manure heap, should be so arranged
as to lose none of the drainage. Side
hill barn-yards are common, because
the barns thus located furnish a
convenient cellar. A barrier of
earth on the lower side of the
yard can be Quickly thrown up
with team and road-scraper. which
Will catch and hold the drenchings of
the yard above, and the coarse, newly
made manure will absorb the liquid and
be benefited by it. 1t would be better
to have the manure made and kept I'M
der cover, always protected from rains
and melting SHOWS. Only enough mois-
ture should be present to keep it from
fermenting too rapidly. An old farmer
who let his manure take care of ITSELF
once kept some of his sheep under cover,
and was greatly surprised at the in
creased value of the manure THUS made
In fact it was so hstrong" that when
scattered IS thickly as the leached dung
Of the yard, it made a distinct belt of
better grain in the field. The testimony
was so much in favor of the stall-made
manure, that the farmer is now keeping
all his live stock under cover, and the
farm is yielding larger crops and grow
ing richer year by year. If it pays to
stop any leak in the granary, it is all
the more important to look well to the
manure that furnishes the food, that
feeds the plants, that grows the grain,
that fills the grain bin. At this season
the living mills are all grinding the hay
and grain, and yielding the by-products
of the manure heap. Much may be
saved in Spring work by letting this
heap be as small as out-door-yard feed
ing and the winds and rain can make it,
but such saving is like that of the eco
nomic sportsman who went out with the
idea of using as little powder and lead
as possible. In farming, grow the lar
gest crops, even though it takes week
or more of steady hard work to get the
rich, heavy. well-prepared manure upon
the fields. More than this, enrich the
land by throwing every stream of fertil-
ity back upon the acres which have
yielded it. Watch the manure heap as
you would a mine of gold.