Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-06-20
HOW 70 USE HEN MANURE.
1t should BE Mixed with Soil and
Kept Moist, Not Wet

Kept Moist, Not Wet.
Hen manure, like Peruvian guano
and all other fertilizers rich in ammo.
MIA, should not in its fresh undiluted
state be permitted to come in imme-
date contact with the roots of plants,
nor with the seed The floor of the
poultry house should be strewed with
powdered muck, or woods earth, or
land plaster to fix the ammonia and
purify the atmosphere. Subsequently
the manure should be composted before
being applied to the field Usually for
vegetables it should be broadcasted and
raked in. For greenhouse use it is
nearly always applied in liquid form,
sparingly and cautiously at all times,
as it has the tendency to "burn'' if
used to excess, and like all other nitrog-
enous manures produces LEAKAGE rath-
er than bloom.
The dung of all domestic fowls and
OF birds generally has marked ma
nurial properties on account of the
large amounts Of ammonia and phos-
phate contained. Hen manure could be
successfully used for any greenhouse
crop if composted with five times it's
amount of soil Tor better, sods), and to
every barrel of manure 10 pounds of
pure ground bone and five pounds of
sulphate of potash, the whole to be cut
down and well fined and mixed before
using. The same could be used for
vegetable growing in the hills, or could
be simply mixed with enough dry earth
plaster or rock phosphate to dry it and
be spread on the garden and narrowed
in.
All greenhouse crops thrive equally
well with the use of hen manure. For
the purpose of watering plants the pro-
portion of manure that may be mixed
with water varies according to the sort
of plant. About one ounce to two gal
Ions of water may generally be used
with safety; some plants will, however,
bear stronger solution.
An excellent plan of applying hen
manure is to mix a portion with Tin any
case) several times it's bulk of soil or
garden refuse, and SO form q fertilizing
compost which may be applied to al
most any garden crop with excellent re-
suits. Composts thus prepared become
useful in two ways: The powerful
properties Of the manure become, when
mixed with soil, partly absorbed by
the latter and are thus rendered less
harmful, and at the same time the de-
composition of all the vegetable matter
is fastened.
The quality of poultry manure to APP
ply also depends somewhat on the ma
ture of the soil. If broadcasted on the
land and well worked in with harrow
or rake, as much as 1000 pounds per
acre may be used Damage from it's
use occurs mostly when applied to
crops in hill or from lack of rain. We
have never seen too much used. The
difficulty has been that farmers use too
little Of that duplicate guano.
If the poultry droppings are collected
daily, mixed with an equal bulk of dry
dirt and stored in barrels, they will be
in excellent condition for use in the
garden when required. But the fire.
quent admonition to keep them dry
should not be followed. If allowed to
become dry in the poultry house, por-
tons soon reach an insoluble condition.
If collected daily and kept somewhat
damp, not wet, they will not lose am
monia and will give better results
when applied to the soil. = A. ".
Meersch in Farm Poultry.