Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-12-26
MAKING FARM MANURE PAY
Should Not Be Hoarded but
Hauled to the Fields as
Soon as Made.
BY PROFESSOR W. F. MASSEY.

BY PROFESSOR W. F. MASSEY.
there is no one thing in which there
is a greater waste on most farms than
in the management of the manural
accumulations l visited a large dairy
farm recently where all the manure of
the summer had been thrown out and
lay in piles wasting all through the
warm weather, while out IN the field
there were grass sods that would have
been greatly improved had the manure
been drawn out as fast as made. This
could easily have been done had
manure spreader been stationed at
the stable and the daily accumulation
thrown into it, and it would have been
but short morning ride to drive out
and spread it on the waiting grass.
= All through Pennsylvania | have
been struck with the practice so COM
mon of laboriously hauling the manure
out in wagons and then laboriously
forking it off into small piles to lie and
heat and waste till there was leisure
enough to expend more needless labor
in spreading it perfectly. Here are
three landings of the manure when
one would have been sufficient had the
Aot AAASi oSCu q cGttleI.
Ask any of these farmers why he
does SO and makes rank spots in his
fields for the grain to lodge and he will
say it is because we have always done
so and our fathers before us. The
whole difficulty is a lack of reflection
and study of ones profession.
Manure is the last thing a farmer
should hoard, for, no matter how it is
boarded, there will be serious loss Of
valuable constituents. Even when it is
hauled out frequently and spread by
hand the work is imperfectly done and
great Jumps are dropped here and
there, where manure spreader would
fine 1t and make the manure go much
further.
V, But whenever, on the lecture plat
form, | urge the hauling out of the
manure and spreading as fast as made
pr as fast as the work on the farm will
allow, I am met with the query, "Will
1T not lose value faster when 1t lies
ifpn the surface of the soil?" No, 1t
will not lose anywhere near as much
las when boarded in the barnyard.
\ When spread on the soil and COM
Epletely fined there is not mass enough
to cause fermentation, as there always
is in heaps, and the chief loss is mere
Syty water.
know of but one way in which ma
8hure can be kept without serious loss
yThis is in box stalls plentifully bedded
al continually tramped by the stock
B In such stalls constantly occupied there
will be little loss, for the aerobic bac-
terra have not air enough to do theil
work. But once tear it up from the
stalls and pile it in heaps either In the
barnyard or in the field and at once
the fermentation begins and the loss
of ammonia takes place.
a5i There are few farms where it is not
at all seasons of the year practicable
to go on the land with a manure
spreader that some place cannot be
found for the manure where it will
leach into the soil Where the roots Of
the plants need it.
While it may not be convenient tt
haul out and spread in the ordinary
way that involves so much labor, il
one keeps a manure spreader at hanc
under cover it is easy to find time tc
drive out and spread the load nerel!
taking a morning ride.
There is no better use that can bs
made of the accumulation in summer
than to spread it regularly on the
grass fields after the hay has been Gu
ito encourage a heavy aftermath Be
fore the hay is cut the manure spread
er can straddle the corn rows and thu
manure will do good there instead O.
wasting in the barnyard.
Later in the season there is the soc
that will go in corn the next spring an6
all during the fall and winter the ma
nure can be going out on the sod t.
&be turned under in the spring.
Years ago the New Hampshire sta.
ton spread manure in the fall on ont
piece of land and let it lie all winter
On another piece the manure wa
spread in the fall at the same time ant
at once turned under. On a third piec,
the manure was spread in the sprint
and the whole land was plowed fol
corn.
The plot on which the manure hat
lain on the s:lrfacc au wintcr mad,
the heaviest crop. And that was in
climate where the son Was frozen hare
all winter.
Whatever of value teaches from tn,
manure on the surface will be alb
sorbed and retained by the SOIL for tn
soil has wonderful power of absorb
Ing manurial matters, and the onl.
thing that will readily leach into TIN
drainage waters will be the nitrates
and there is little formation of nitrate
during the cold of winter, the cnans
from organic nitrogen to ammonia an,
thence to nitrates being accomplishe,
by forms of bacteria that need q higl
temperature for their activity.
The manure sDreader is the mos
useful implement that has been invent
I'd of late years 1t is not only a grea
labor saver, but through the bette
timing of the manure it is made to g.
iiG1her and do more good than whei
90 sfly spread on by hand. In tn
'"@"cif~ Of farm labor in al
parts Of the country it behooves tn
tI..u advantage of labor
s@Tiag implements, for horse labor i
5hfaper by far than hand labor b.
na9.
am frequently asked which is tn
BEST manure sprcader. I feel like re