Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1895-08-29
LIQUID Manure.

A. y. Barrett writes II American
CultivatOr as follows: Liquid manure
applied directly TO plants gives much
quicker results than the coarse ma
nure. The fertilizing elements con-
tanned in the liquid manure are in a
condition for rapid absorption, and IL
plants consequently feel the benefit at
once. II does not follow. however.
that liquid manures can or should take
the place Of all coarse manures, any
more than that the highly
commercial fertilizers should run out
the barnyard fertilizers. The soil
needs both. One great advantage that
coarse ba~-4yard manures confer upon
the soil is TO separate the soil particles
and make them more porous. The
thicker and more compact a soil is the
more does it need coarse barnyard ma
nures.
But the value of the liquid manure is
frequently overlooked by farmers. and
more of this is wasted than saved. If
manure heap is located outdoors
where the spring rains can fall upon it
the water teaching through the pile will
soon form a puddle at the bottom. If
allowed to stand short time it will
get dark. Now apply some of this
liquid manure direct to dozen hills
of corn or any vegetable, and fertilize
dozen more equally good hills with
the coarse manure from the pile. Make
two or three applications of each dur
ing the summer and watch the results.
The experiment has been tried many
times, and the results are invariably
in favor of the liquid manure. The
plants grow faster and thriller and
produce larger crops. At the Iowa
Experiment Station some time ago this
experiment was tried, and the acre of
corn fertilized with the liquid manure
yielded 1902 bushels of corn, and an
other acre fortified with barnyard ma
nure of ordinary richness produced only
50.06 bushels.
This represents roughly what farm
er is losing when he exposes his ma
nure pile so that the liquid part is
wasted Every rain that falls on it
washes away considerable of its most
valuable ingredients This waste is
ceaseless. 1t continues right up to
the time of applying the manure to the
field. If allowed to stand out all win
ter it stands to reason that more than
half of the essence of the manure has
been wasted. Fortunately of late years
this practice of exposing the manure
to the weather at all seasons of the
year has gradually fallen into disuse.
and only a few farmers of the old school
hold to it. In the coward and stables
the liquid part of the manure is allowed
to soak into the earth, where ii can
never be reached. On large dairy
farm this waste is enormous. If one
has wooden or cemented floors of
course the waste is checked almost en-
tirely. but not one in 10 have such
floors
The hard earth floors, packed down
! by heavy pounding, anS covered with
foot of chaff, viii collect most Of this
/ liquid manure in the COW stable. But
| the absorbent must be renewed often
enough to keep all Of the liquid from
going to waste If the yard has a
slight incline the liquid viii run off,
| and can be conducted into receivers
placed at one side During rain
storms the surplus moisture is great,
and dozen barrels of liquid can be
collected in this way. This will be
! liquid manure strongly diluted. but it
can be poured over the manure hear
later in dry weather so that most of it
/ can be absorbed. One loses little from
the COW stable exposed to the weather
/ by adopting some such plan as this.