Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-21
Now Look out for BIanures.

Now Look Out for Manures.
The attention of the thrifty farmer
should be directed during the open fall
weather to the accumulation of manure
materials. There is no soil that is under
cultivation, unless it be the deltas of
rivers, that are annually fertiliZed by
overfOws which leave behind them fresh
deposits OF fertiliZing substances-and
those lowlands are but too frequently I'M
healthy-we say there is no soil under
cultivation, with this exception, that does
not require to be kept in good condition
by the application of manure. Every
crop removed from field eXhausts it of a
portion of its constituents, its "plant
food, /" as the Germans call it, and this loss
must be made good or the fertility of the
soil cannot be kept up. OF course blowing
and thorough cultivation will do much to-
ward keeping up the fertility of a soil, but
none of these processes can absolutely re-
store to the land the constituents that the
crops take from it. These must be re-
turned in the shape of domestic or COM
merclal manures. First, thorough lining
lies at the base of good farming in many
sections. Lime is not manure of itself,
but its action in the soil converts the or
ganic and inorganic elements otherwise
locked up there into soluble food for fu-
ture crops. Assuming, then, that lime
has been already applied, if the soil has
been previously exhausted by hard crop
ping, its full and complete effects will not
be evident unless it has vegetable matter
to act upon in addition to the mineral con-
stituents contained in the soil itself.
Where there is some life remaining in the
soil, that is to say, some elements of fer
tility, lime and crop of clover turned
under will be of immense advantage in the
process of regeneration. l believe, with
our hot and dry summers, in keeping the
fields covered as frequently as possible
with green crops.
1t is our continuous hay crops which
have so exhausted many Northern and
Eastern farms, and the damages thus
created to the soils can only be repaired
by frequent applications of manure. Now,
manure is term of much wider signif-
canoe than people generally imagine. 1t
is not restricted to the contents of the
barnyard and the hogpen, the poultry
house and the cattle shed, but embraces
all sorts OF animal refuse and every spe-
cies of rough vegetable matter, from a
dead horse to dead leaves. In fine, bones,
wood, ashes, marsh muck, turf from road
sides, the waste of slaughter houses and
provision packing establishments, wool,
hair, horns, fish and those valuable COM
pounds thst are offered for sale under the
general and well-known name offertilizers,
all these are manures.
Domestic manures, however, which can
be cOmposted on every farm, merit atten-
ton, as their chief cost is the labor en-
ployed. One compost heap should be
formed within easy distance of the house,
yet sufficiently remote from it not to be-
come offensive when fermentation sets in.
The foundation of this heap should be
turf, woods mold and leaves; over this
should be spread a layer of wood ashes
and the soapsuds which would otherwise
be poured off from the Mondays wash
tubs and permitted to run to waste. When
the first layer is well saturated and fur
nished with a sufficient quantity of wood
ashes, second layer Of refuse vegetable
matter should be supplied and the wood
ashes and soapsuds again turned on it,
the same process being continued layer
by layer throughout the winter. When
the heap Is thawed in the spring and fer
mentation is we'll advanced, the whole
should be turned over and incorporated,
and the new heap thus formed may be
suffered to remain until the time arrives
for carting it to the ield.-Aneric0n CuL-
tiUdtOT.