Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-02-07
RaI.n-Yard Economy.

A dark stream, often of golden color
always of golden value, flows to waste
from many an American barn-yard.
This liqnid fertility often enters the
side ditch of the farm lane, sometime,
of the highway, and enters into a brook
which removes it beyond the reach OF
plants that would greatly profit by it.
Nice may gnaw hole in the granary
and daily abstract a small quantity OF
grain, or the skuDks may reduce the
poultry yard, but these leaks are small
in comparison with that from the poorly
constructed and ill-kept barn yard. The
most valuable part of manure is thai
which is very soluble, and unless it is
Retained by some absorbent, or kept
from the drenching rains, it will be
quickly Oat 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 being equal, the farmer
who comes out in the spring with the
largest amount of the best quality OF
manure, will be the one who finds farm
ing pays the best.
A barn yard, whether on a side bill
or on level, with all the rains free t.
fall upon the manure heap, should be ST
arranged as to lose none of the drainage
Side hill barn yards are common, be
cause the barns thus located furnish a
convenient cellar. a barrier of earit
on the lower side of the yard can bt
quickly thrown up with a team ant
road scraper, which will catch and holO
a nf ha oh
the coarse. newly made manure will alb
sorb the liquid and be benefited by it
1t would be better TO have the mannrt
made and kept under cover, always vel
protected from rains aud melting SHOWS
Only enough moisture should be present
to keep il fermeDting too rapidly.
An old farmer who let his manure
take care of itself, once kept some o
his sheep under cover and was greatly
surprised at the increased value of tn,
manure thus made. In fact, 1t was s,
strong that when scattered as 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 this
farmer is now keeping all his live stOcl
hnder cover, and the farm is yielding
larger crops and growing richer yea
by year.
Ii it pays to stop any leak in the gra
nary, it is all the more important to looE
well to the manure that furnishes the
food, that feeds the plants, that grow
the grain, that fills the grain bin. Al
this season the living mills are all grind
ing 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 dool
feeding and the winds and rains car
make it. but such saving is like that oi
the economic sportsman who went out
with the idea of using as little powder
and lead as possible. In farming, grow
the largest possible crops, even though
it takes week or more of steady hare
work to get the rich, heavy, well prepa
red manure upon the fields. More than
this, enrich the land by throwing every
: stream of fertility back upon the acre,
which have yit lded it. Watch the ina
nure heap as you would a mine of gold
American Agriculturist for Feb.