The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-10-03
Sawdust in the Stable.

A few years ago there was very
strong prejudice against the use of saw
dust for bedding cattle and for absorb
ing the liquid manures of the stable.
Many men who owned saw-mills were
afraid to use their mill dust for fear it
would spoil the manure, Or the land.
It was contended that sawdust made
worms to eat the potatoes and cut off
the roots of the corn. 1t was also said
to burn the manure, and some thought
it would permanently poison the land
to which it was applied. Pine sawdust
was deemed specially dangerous on &C.
count of the pitch it contained, and as
proof we were asked to notice that
nothing will grow under the dense mat
of needles which annually fall from the
boughs of pine trees. Other farmers
who found straw bedding ut twenty
dollars ton rather too expensive for
free use, but who were determined to
keep their animals clean and comfort
able when in the stalls, have persevered
in their experiments with sawdust till
they have lived to see very much of the
pre-, udice against it removed. Men
who once refused to use sawdust made
at their very doors, now go miles to
obtain it for bedding cattle and horses.
1t is impossible to use it in excess of
needs, and to apply the manure inn
properly. Green sawdust will heat
readily when used for horse bedding,
and the heat may in;ure the manure
unless it is spread thinly, kept wet, or
trodden down solid by hogs, or other
animals. 1t has been thought to cause
humors upon the skin of horses. which
may be true in few instances, but is
certainly not general complaint.
Sawdust that is left out to the weather
and is constantly wet, may be clearly
enough as bedding, but it is not good
absorbent. 1t should be stored under
cover and kept as dry as possible.
Green sawdust piled under cover will
heat itself dry in few weeks of sum-
mer weather.
1t may be used in cow stables merely
to dust down the floors to keep them
looking neat, or it may be spread deep
ly, two or three bushels to an animal,
for making soft bed, the soaked por-
tions being removed as occasion re-
quires. We would not use manure for
top-dressing moving fields when large
amounts of sawdust have been mingled
with it in the stables. Such manure is
comparatively light and will not lie as
close to the surface, nor rot as rapidly
as would manure that was mixed with
sand or dry loan. Sawdust manure will
do best plowed or cultivated into the
soil, where it will keep moist and decay
rapidly. That it is poison in any true
sense of that term, we do not believe.
We have applied manure in which it
formed a liberal part, to all kinds of
farm and garden crops with no i'll re-
suits whatever 1t neither creates nor
attracts worms of any kind. We have
used it one year old in hot-bed soil, and
found the plant roots running through
it and clinging to the particles of rotten
wood as if 5hey were bits of bone. Rot
ten sawdust is too near akin to wood
mold and the dust around rotting tree
properly used. A member of the Frank
lin Farmers Club once drew load of
sawdust and dumped it in a heap in one
of his fields, and after spreading it about
SO it was not more than three or four
inches thick, plowed it in without see
ing any i'll effects whatever, but slight
improvement in the crops after two or
three years when the dust had thor
oughly rotted.
We have used pine needles in the
same way blowing them into the soil of
corn field without being able to see
any special effect whatever. Still we
make no claim that there is great value
in sawdust as manure, but only that it
is q most excellent absorbent and per-
fectly safe to use in reasonable quanti-
ties. Bew En- gland Farmer.