The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1907-11-07
QUALITY OF MANURE.
Il lie Greatly Affected by the Manner In
Which II ls Handled.


One important factor is the care
given the manure before It Is applied
TO the land. The common way OF
throwing the manure out In a pile 10
be tramped in the mud by the stock
and leached away by the rains is pro-
ductive Of great loss OF plant food.
Besides, the fermentation in such a
pile Is destructive Of nitrogen and hu-
mus, The Cornell station showed that
horse manure thrown In an unshel-
tered pile lost In six summer months
AZ per cent. of it's fertilizlng elements.
The New Jersey station showed that
solid and liquid manure mixed lost by
exposure In 100 days 81 per cent. Of
its nitrogen and phosphoric acid each
and 81 per cent. OF its potash. Such
care Is certainly wasteful and manure
kept under such conditions connot
give very large increased yields. At
the same time as the above expert
ment the Cornell station piled some
mixed manure so that fermentation
went on slowly. but the pile was not
sheltered from rain. Under such con-
dillon the loss OF constituents was SO
per cent. Another pile handled 30
that Il dried without fermentation lost
practically nothing. Prof Frear OF the
Pennsylvania station showed that It
was more economical by s2eO per
head In a period OF six months 10 al
low the manure from fattening steers
TO accumulate under them for two
months at time than it was TO clean
the stables daily and deposit In the
ordinary way. This saving doos not
consider the labor involved In haul
ing the manure. The practice CT al
lowing the manure TO accumulate for
a time is a practicable one for loose
stock II there be plenty OF bedding to
keep them clean and absorb the
liquids. The constant tramping keeps
the manure solid and fermentation
goes on slowly. However. when the
stock Is taken on. the stable should
be cleaned nj once and the manure
scattered. for there is soon a big loss
OF nitrogen In the form OF ammonia.
The ideal way OF handling manure
Is TO remove II 10 the field every day
and spread on the land. says the Farm
ers' Review In this way there Is
little loss by fermentation and what
substance Is leached out by rain is
washed into the soil where Il Is taken
up by the roots. or Is chemically
combined with other minerals In the
soil For this purpose there is no
better way than ere using OF a manure
spreaier. Il will hold usually all the
cleanings for a day and In some casos
the cleanings OF two or three days
may be thrown into the spreader aud
then hauled out. Farmers everywhere
have found the spreader an almost in
dispensable tool.
However Il Is not always convon-
lent TO haul out and spread every day.
The ground Is frequently too soft 10 go
on With team aud wagon. and often
the field on which Il Is wished to apply
the manure Is occupied by crop.
Under such conditions Il becomes nee
essary TO store the manure for some
time. Few farmers will 90 TO the
expense OF building a covered manure
pit with cement sider and bottom into
which the liquid and solid manure may
DO kept solid and damp. but every one
could have a concave area with ce-
ment. or stlff clay. bottom, from which
drainage would not take place Into
this the manure could be thrown In a
rather deep pile. kept evenly spread.
and packed down by tho tramping OF
loose animals or otherwise The
tramping would prevent rapid fermen-
tatlon and the rains would keep the
pile sufficiently moist II should be
said In this connection that an effort
should be made to save all the liquids
by a liberal use OF bedding. The
liquids. weight for weight, are twice
as valuable as the solids. Whatever
method is resorted to for storing. the
manure should be kept solid and damp
and should be hauled TO the field and
scattered as soon as possible. It should
be scattered at once and not be al.
lowed to lie In piles for week or
even months. IL should be spread
evenly over the ground aud here again
the spreader viii come into good use