The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-11-27
THE MANURE PILE.
Timely Suggestions on a Topic of More
Thnn Ordinary interest.

Timely Suggestions on a Topic of More
Than Ordinary Interest.
How to save the manure of the dairy,
and how to apply it to the best advan-
tago, is one of those problems of the
farm that no man can think and study
over too much. Some one has wisely
said that the manure pile is the farmers
bank account. If the farmer has the
proper appreciation of the nature of
manure on the farm, he will value early
winter for its admirable adaptability to
securing this valuable article for the
farm
The dairyman is usually so much bet
ter provided with manure than the ordi-
nary farmer that he seldom appreciates
its real value, and 80 neglects to take
advantage of all opportunities he has
for increasing his supply. In the first
place not one dairy farm in hundred
IS provided with any means for securing
the liquid manure from the cows. This
is usually allowed to run to waste and
often to make a mud-hole in the stable,
instead of being secured IN some shape
that it may be of value to the farmer.
Some very fine dairy farms have cisterns
or cemCnted basement, or manure Gel
lars, with more or less elaborate con-
duitS leading from under these cows to
these receptacles, and very often the
collection Of such a mass of fluid manure
sets up q stencil that ruins the atmos-
phere for breathing purposes all about
the stable. This is an expensive and
often runOus method of saving the
liquid manure, and one that few practi-
cal da'rymen will be willing to follow.
This is one of the instances in which
economy and the best practice 90 hand
in hand Instead of laying out money
for costly apparatus for carrying the
liquid it will not only be far cheaper
but much better in every way to save
this LIQUID manure with some dry sub
stance used as bedding for the cows,
such as leaves, dry weeds, the patent
moss. or even dry earth, straw or other
material such as saw-dust, that will
come handiest to the man who has the
cows to bed.
Dry earth is an excellent article for
bedding and saving the liquid manure,
though it is not so easily gathered and
taken care of or spread under the cows
as leaves. Dry earth is, however, a
better disinfectant of bad odors, while
it holds all the water that falls on it.
The great trouble with this bedding is
the mud that will stick to the cow
hair, and the everlasting dust it makes
in the cowhouse.
If YOU can get saw-dust, by all means
do SO. 1t is a long way the best bed
ding ever invented, being light to haul,
easily stored, easily spread under the
COWS. an admirable absorbent, and can
be quickly shaken out it the morning.
Both leaves and saw-dust have an adj
mirable mechanical influence on the
soil. While leaves help the productive
character of the soil, not much can be
said in this way for saw-dust, and es-
pecially the dust of pine and oak and
some other woods, they last so long be-
fore beginning to rot. We advise, how
ever, that the dairyman be not too
scrupulouS about the article he puts in
his manure pile. The first thing is to
attend to its bulk. Get together every
thing on or off the farm that can be
spared and add it to the manure pile.
First attend to the bulk and the quality
will take care ofitself. By degrees all the
constituents will melt into one and
make a valuable manure.-An,erican
LCIyH0H.