The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-01-03


We use the term "Home Fertilization"
in contradistinction with Commercial
Fertilization" 1t has been a practice with
good farmers who resided within wagon
ing distance of our large Eastern cities,
for over half century, to exchange, ton
for ton, their threshed wheat straw
Tor the manure produced in livery
and private stables by the use of
said straw, the farmers hauling both
ways. Thus the stable-owners secure
bedding for their horses and the farmers
have been satisfied to receive at the stable
ton ofthe fertilizer resulting from the use
ola ton of straw. The practice has worked
satisfactorily to both parties for many
years, the industrious farmers keeping
up the fertility of their land, and the own
ers of the city horses and stables believ
ing they were making a fair exchange;
and hundreds of thousands of wagon
loads have thus been transported, some
of them as much as forty miles distance;
but until within the last fortnight we
never saw an estimate made OF the practi-
cal and economical results of the custom.
A friend of ours, who is both editor and
farmer, has recently given attention to
tlilS QUESTION, anu publishes at leuRLu the
result Of his observations in the Doyles
town, Pa, IntetigeHcer, showing how
much manure a ton of wheat straw will
produce by passing through horse
stable. Imagining very many of our
agricultural readers would like to know
the results of the process, we here at
tempt summary view OF his long state
ment. He asserts at first that, owing to
an enormous loss Of weight through fer
mentation, leaking and other agencies, it
is ali wrong to add the full weight of the
excrete to the full weight of the bedding
as resultant manure. At the Cornell
University experiment station pile OF
two tons of manure had been accumu-
lated between April 18th and April 18th.
Cut wheat straw was used for bedding at
the rate of 1000 pounds straw to 6Sl
pounds excrement, at which rate a ton of
cut straw used as bedding would last I'M
til a total product of less than six tons of
manure had been thrown out of the stable.
This pile OF 1000 pounds of manure re-
manned exposed 10 the weather five
months, and was carefully scraped up
and weighed, the total weight being
shown l ,730 pounds-a loss of 81 per cent.
This showed that a ton of cut straw
passed through horse stable would re-
suit in % less than six tons of fresh ma
nure; and " that the loss of weight of
manure in heaps is great and rapid.
Another experiment related showed
that ,J75 pounds of wheat straw was
hauled to a livery stable and resultant
manure hauled home at several different
times, few days apart, to the aggregate
amount of I, 80 pounds, when the straw
was exhausted; so that one ton of wheat
straw passed through livery stable and
the manure hauled away promptly would
produce a little less than i've tons of
fresh manure. As the home price of the
straw was about $40 per ton, and the
freight on manure from the city costs
about s. per ton, it is remarked that there
is no great economic difference between
bringing manure from the city, twenty
six miles distant, by rail, and supplying
a home livery stable, ton for ton, and
hauling away the manure while it was
yet fresh.
Other data are furnished from the Penn
sylvania State College Experimental
Station, where two experiments were
made to determine the amount OF straw
required for the economic bedding of
horses standing upon a clay floor, and 1t
was concluded that 800 pounds of straw,
used to bed a horse for year, would
produce a manure product of 1867
pounds, making the total weight for the
farmers return haul about IL, 900 pounds
showing that a ton of straw thus
worked through horse stable would
produce six tons of unfermented and I'M
bleached manure.
Our contemporary concludes his highly
interesting remarks:
81. That a ton of wheat straw economi-
cally handled, may result in six tons of
fresh manure, but that under no ordinary
circumstances will it be promptly hauled
and weighed than was done in the Camp
bell experiment, where the product was
five tons.
$50. That in stables where but one or
two horses are kept, or where the manure
is infrequently hauled away, the product
h. Nr.rl,F l.
half tons when the time comes to re-
move it.
fermentation causes the rapid escape
of volatile gases. Leaching. caused by
pressure or otherwise, results in loss of
much weight of liquid manure. And,
finally, q fungus which is commonly
known as 'hre-tang' causes further loss
of substance, probably by aiding evapora-
ton. Fermentation goes on throughout
the whole interior mass of the manure
pile. Leaching is most apparent at the
bottom, where the pressure is greatest.
'Fire-fang' is whitlsh or gray mycelium.
resulting in a harmless toadStool. The
'fre-fang' occurs just under the surface of
the manure, but never extends much
more than a foot toward the middle of
a solid pile. Where it appears to pene-
trate the whole mass it merely indicates
that it has been buried by subsequent de-
posts of fresh manure, or that the heap
mas been very loose throughout.
'These several agencies destroy not
merely the weight, but the actual chemi-
cal value OF manure Especially horse
manure), and render the plan of furnish
lshing straw for manure very expensive
unless the product can be regularly and
promptly hauled and spread upon the
fields. "-Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.
TREATMENT OF CHICKEN CHOLERA.
The symptoms of chicken cholera are
as follows: The fowl drooDs and rnonas
about. with the feathers staring; the
comb and wattles turn dark or pale.
usually the former; there is great weak
ness and manifest symptoms of distress:
digestion is arrested, food refused. the
crop filled with sour and fermenting
food; diarrhea of mild type at first, in
creasing in severity to the end; drop
pings at first of greenish-yellow color.
becoming more trothy and sulphurous as
the disease progresses; pulse rapid and
feeble; high fever and great thirst; sleep-
mess is a characteristic symptom. The
disease is produced by microscopic or
ganism.
In treating this disease, as it is highly
infectious, the first thing to be done is to
remove all the affected birds from the
flock and Immediately clean up the prem
ises-house and yard, drenching every
thing with water calculated with sui
phuric acid. Then keep things clean and
sprinkle daily, for a few days, with water
in which small quantity of sulphuric
acid has been mixed. The following
treatment for sick fowls is recommended
by DR.. Niche: Take blue mass, sixty
grains; pulverized camphor, thirty grains;
cayenne pepper, thirty grains; pulverlzed
rhubarb, forty-eight grains; laudanum,
sixty drops. Mix, and make into twenty
pills. Give one pill to each fowl every
three or four hours until they act fully
bp thew have arfad