The Somerset reporter., 1893-12-18
TAas $780,
MGABMs
NJ -AD GARDEN
The WINTER MANURE PILE.
Compost 1t and Render 1t Effective With
out Any Waste.


out Any Waste.
Few farmers appreciate or care for
as they hould the manure made by
feeding stock i'll winter 1t is Il season
of comparative leisure, Some of this
spare time might well be given to the
manure crop-a most important one for
its money value. and still more impor-
tant ms the foundation of success with all
other crops. American CultIvator be-
lieves that winter composing of ma
nnre, regulated and guarded against
waste, is What Is needed To make it at
once effective without loss. Fresh ex
crement of domestic animals is not
available manure for plants. If used
in considerable amounts, 1t burns the
foliage and rets the roots to which it is
applied. of course when drawn upon
the land and plowed under this fresh
manure is more or less mixed with soil,
But ii has 10 ferment before it can
give any available plant food. Scat
cred rs it Is and mixed with soil, often
several inches below the SUI face, fer
mentation is slow. There is practical
" nothing for the plant roots until
warm weather comes 1t is Just dur
ing the cold of early spring that most
crops need stimulating, or rather feed
ing After warm weather develops nj
trogen from the soil roots can forage for
themselves. 1t is to supply this early
need of nitrogen that this expensive fer
tilizer is put into commercial manures.
nn,,.iatip,, - f,nuI
excrement and bedding, is usually man
aged it often does not decompose until
too late for doing much good the first
season. But the nitrogen that it gives
off late in the fall is, ON naked land,
washed away by winter and spling rains.
SO that most of it is wasted. II the
manure be colnposted and turned two or
three times in winter, as might we'll be
done, its bulk will he smalle", but it
will he much finer and can Inc distribut-
ed more evenly. Ii will also be ready
to be Immediately effective. The spring
crop starting vigorously will use up
large part of the plant food, SO that it
can be sold by the farmer the same
year, just as the increased products
made by the use of commercial ferti
lizers now are.
The winter compost heap will be-
come, says the authority quoted, the
favorite means of applying mineral fer
tiliZers Mixed with stable manure.
these minerals will not revert and be-
come insoluble as they will when APP
piled directly to the soil. The German
potash salts ought always to be used in
compost heaps, as they will absorb and
retain nitrogen that would otherwise
be lost when the manure ferments.
Stable manure needs more phosphate
usually, and when mixed with IA finely
decomposed compost it can be spread
more evenly than the phosphate often
is with average drills. Each small
particle of compost containing potash
and phosphate becomes perfect ma
nure, and will tell on any crop to which
it is applied. We have seen such ma
nure applied to grass land in winter
turning tho grass bright green early
in April, while grass on land not 80 ma
nured did not begin to grow until a
month later.
1t is not expensive to pile the winter
made manure into heaps and turn it
two or three times, SO rs to prevent
burning in the center. After the second
or third turning it can be hauled out
on tho land and spread rs evenly us
possible. The barnyard should not be
very large, and should be kept well
strewed with straw to catch all the drop
pings while the stock are out of doors.
Tho earliest drawn manure may he
made more effective by narrowing it in
the Jumps of manure.