Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-09-30

Construction of the Manure Heap-The
Use of Personalities.
Careful construction of the manure
heap so that air wilk he as completely
excluded as possible, keeping the heap
moist and avoiding alternate wetting
and drying have been suggested as
means of preventing loss of valuable
fertilizing constituents and of promot-
ing decomposition which will largely
reduce the power of the manure to con-
vert available nitrogen into less valua-
BILE or useless forms Identifying power)
in the soil. Here we have an explana-
ton of the effectiveness of we'll rotted
manure. Not only is the availability Of
its own nitrogen increased, but its power
to injuriously affect available nitrogen
from other sources is reduced.
Authorities agree that management
of the manure heap is more important
than the use of preservatives. Kainit
has been found to be effective in check
ing the formation Of ammonia, and SUI
perphosphate in preventing its escape
The use of these is to be recommended
where they can be cheaply obtained,
because, in addition to preserving the
manure, they add to it constituents
potash and phosphoric acid) in which
it is somewhat deficient. Caustic lime
has been found effective in destroying
the Identifying power of manure
above referred to, but there are objec-
tions to its use. 1t has a tendency to
drive off ammonia from organic matter
such as manure. However, if the lime
is applied to the fresh manure the
danger of loss from the escape of am
monia has been found to be very small.
1t is only after fermentation has COM
menoed in the manure that the danger
of loss on application of lime becomes
serious 1t has been suggested that it
might be safe and economical to mix
caustic lime or mari with the manure
to destroy its Identifying power and to
cover the heap with earth to prevent
the escape of ammonia. A second OBJ
lection to lime is that it tends to con-
vert the available nitrogen of manure
into insoluble and less available forms,
but this tendency is, in measure, COM
to destroying the Identifying organ
ism, as already explained, the lime
promotes nitrifcation, or the formation
of nitrates, when the manure is applied
to the SOIL Lime should not be used in
connection with superphosphate. Bisul-
phide of carbon almost entirely destroys
the Identifying organism, but its use
in practice is not recommended because
of its expensiveness. Sulphuric acid has
proved very effective, not only preserv-
ing the fertilizing constituents, but in
creasing the availability of the nitro
gen, but its general use can hardly be
recommended. In addition to the fore
going interesting information based on
results gained in experiment station
work United States department. bull
letin adds:
One point which has been clearly
brought out by recent investigation is
that the addition of straw may very de-
cidedly reduce the fertilizing value of
manure, the injurious effect being
greater the larger the amount of straw
used. This is explained by the fact stated
above that straw contains organisms
which convert the available nitrogen in
manures and in the soil into forms
which the plant cannot utilize. The ex-
eessive use of straw as litter under ami
mails should therefore be carefully
avoided if the most effective manure is
desired.