Iron County register., 1889-02-07
HOW TO SAVE MANURE.
Methods Which Have Given Entire Satis-
faction to Their Originator.

Methods Which Have Given Entire satis-
faction to Their Originator.
have now arranged so that draw
out about half my manure in winter
and spread it from the wagon, and the
remainder is drawn out for use on the
wheat land in July Or August. have
three stables running parallel across
my barn which is thirty feet wide.
The basement of barn is forty-two feet
wide and the doors are on the east side.
Across the south end l have partitioned
off a root cellar, and a room for bed
ding, large enough to hold winter's
supply of sawdust or corn chaff, as we
use either one or the other OF these
materials for bedding the cows. Our
! barn extends fourteen feet farther
south and here is our wagon shed from
which we shovel the sawdust or roots
directly into the place set apart
| for them. The floors of the root
cellar and the room for bed
! ding, are exactly on a level with
i that on which the cows stand, with
J a manure ditch two feet wide and
| eight inches deep between them, but
the floor extends two feet farther out
| than the cellar, so as to give walk
| between the cellar and the manure
ditch. The end of the manure ditch
is exactly at the center of the door
through which the cows enter from
the barn-yard.
Our barn-yard is about sixty feet
square, and our straw is always
stacked in the center. and the space all
around between it and the pens is COW
cred either with the waste straw or
with the waste of the corn fodder, and
| the manure from the COW stable is
wheeled out each day and spread
around the stack. Adjoining the
barn-yard is Lighthouse, so that we
can let hogs into it, or shut them out
at pleasure, and the latter part of
winter, when we have the last of
the straw either under foot or re-
moved into the barn, the hogs
do good service in fining the manure
in the barn-yard. With twenty or
thirty tons of straw worked down, and
the waste from twenty acres of corn
fodder mixed through, and the manure
from six to eight COWS distributed over
the barn-yard, 1 can. by the aid of the
hogs, get it fine enough to handle nice
ly in about a month. Having our barn
yard covered in this way, it is always
clean under foot for the stock, and the
yard is covered so deep that all the
liquid is saved. In pleasant weather
our horses are let out forenoons. and
their continual tramping crushes all
the corn-stalls, so that they decompose
more readily than straw.
North of the constable is the horse
stable, the horses standing facing the
cows, with passageway between, SO
that we pass through to feed. At the
rear of the horses is a manure-shed
twelve feet wide, extending the full
thirty feet, in which we keep
loose from eight to twelve calves.
This is built on as a leantO, but is
boarded with matched lumber, so as to
make it warm, and is high enough to
give some storage room above, and
there are openings in the floor through
which we drop hay or fodder into a
rack which comes to within three feet
of the floor. and under it is a trough
for meal. At each end of this shed are
double doors. so we can drive through
to take out the manure.
The horse stable is cleaned every
morning, and all manure and sOiled
bedding thrown into the shed. The
young cattle tramp it down solid, and
there is never any fermentation from
it so that no gases escape to make the
air offensive. Our shed holds COM
fortably twelve large two-horse loads
of manure, and we clean it out three
times during the winter. If I were
building again would make this shed
eighteen or twenty feet wide so as to
be able to store more manure in it
when desirable. 1 have never been
able to make manure in the barnyard
that / considered near so valuable as
this made in the shed, which had no
moisture about it except that furnished
by the urine, and l always find this
sufficient to moisten every part of it.
l usually have clover sod to spread it
on, and always prefer to use manure
drawn out in winter on land with sod
OF SUuDDlo Ou III, DuU l. Ollcu SpEcdu IL
on stalk ground The manure which
we reserve for wheat land we
want quite fine, as we use it
as top dressing after plowing,
and so in May or early June,
when the land is too wet to plow, the
barn-yard manure which has been
well worked over by the hogs, is
forked up into fiat piles four or five
feet high. We shake and mix it care
fully and usually find, if well done.
that one turning is sufficient but if
not we turn it a second time later. I
think we have enough labor in draw
ing out the manure in the decreased
bulk. and in the ease with which it
can be handled and spread, to more
than half pay for the turning. and the
increased availability of the manure
for the wheat plant in the short period
OF tall growth certainly fully pays for
all the extra labor. Country
Gentleman.
Poultry Short-Stops-