The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1889-04-26
One Of the Big Leaks.


low, which will be read with interest
and profit by ali: -
l. What is the percentage Of loss in
plant food from pile Of manure ex-
posed to the weather from November
until April?
So much depends upon the character
of the manure, the depth of the pile
and the amount OF rainfall that no def.
mite answer can be given. From OBJ.
servation and experiment should say
that manure spread out from four to
eight inches in depth, as in most barn.
yards, would probably lose at least one
half Of it real value. Some experiments
in England show that five tons of raw
manure lost, in rotting, one-half Of its
nitrogen and over one half Of its bulk.
When we consider the amount of water
that falls, upon the average, Oh each
and every acre in this state, one cannot
understand why any thinking man
should deliberately store the most val
liable produce of the farm in an open
barnyard for from six to nine months
in the year. Three thousand two hun
dred tons of water fall on each acre an.
nually, and on each barnyard of 100 by
Ito feet, 800 tons. Can a farmer af-
ford to put man at 81 per day at one
end of a dung fork to lift 500 tons OF
water at the other end; or can he afford
to baptize his manures? He is com
PEELED to haul this water to the field if
it does not leak out; if it does it carries
valuable plant food with it. Some ex
periments conducted at Cornell Uniyer.
sty show that sixty cents worth of
plant food was lost with each ton of
water that teaches through eight inches
of strawy manure. Eight hundred tons
20 lift or leach. Farmers, can you af-
ford it?
2. What is the best practical method
of keeping manure where trom ten to
twenty five head of stock are kept?
What cannot be hauled out in late fall
and early winter and spread where
there is plant growing, and what is
made, say, from December or January
to May should be kept in covered
yard or manure cellar, or in water.
tight rottlng pit in the open, where
all teaching may be pumped back on
the pile. We use both the fist and
the last Of these methods aud find them
very satisfactory.
8. What is the value of liqnid ma.
nure from horses and cows, and the
best practical method of saving it?
Under average conditions we shall find
the following:
NITROGEN. POTASH.
Horse, 5000 lbs. 46.5 lbs. As lbs. Value 1898
Cow, 5000 lbs. 46.4 lbs. 1912" 9.65
The above is computed on the basis
of seventeen cents for nitrogen and
four and one-half cents for potash In
open barnyards and in piles of hot
horse manure most Of the nitrogen and
not small share Of the potash are lost
Mix the dry horse manure with the
wet COW manure. Use as absorbents
dry earth or muck, buck wheat huls.
sawdust, gypsum, imported moss, shaw
ipes, straw and refuse hay. If none OF
these can be found in sufficient guam
titles, then the urine should be run
into watertight receptacle, pumped
into tank and spread upon grass land,
but this as last resort. What sane
man would leave his barn roof off to
save little expense and let $50 pounds
of water fall annually on each square
foot of hay NOW? What informed farm
er will continue to let $50 pounds of
water fall on each square foot of the
barnyard when it usually contains three
to five times as many tons as his hay
NOW, each ton of which, if it is proper
" made manure, is worth So?