Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-12-28
MAKING FARM MANURE PAY
Should Not Be Hoarded but
Hauled to the Fields as
Soon as Made
By Professor ". F. MASSEY.


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 Il
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 l 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
farmer used manure spreader
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
whole difficulty is 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 imperfeetly done and
great Jumps are dropped here and
WIN n ma
fine it and make the manure go much
further.
But whenever, on the lecture plat
form, I urge the hauling out of the
manure and spreading as fast as made
OF as fast as the work on the farm will
allow, I am met with the query, "Will
it not lose value faster when it lies
on the surface of the soil2" No, it
will not lose anywhere near as much
as when boarded in the barnyard.
When spread on the soil and COM
pletely fined there is not mass enough
to cause fermentation, as there always
is in heaps, and the chief loss is mere
~ water.
l know of but one way in which ma
nure can be kept without serious loss.
This is in box stalls plentifully bedded
an continually tramped by the stock.
In such stalls constantly occupied there
will be little loss, for the aerobic BAG
terra have not air enough to do their
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.
There are few farms where it is not
at all seasons of the year practicable
to go on the land with 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 to
haul out and spread in the ordinary
way that involves SO much labor, if
one keeps manure Spreader at hand
under cover it is easy to find time to
drive out and spread the load, merely
taking morning ride.
There is no better use that can be
made of the accumulation in summer
than to spread it regularly on the
grass fields after the hay has been cut
to encourage heavy aftermath. Be-
fore the hay is cut the manure spread
err can straddle the corn rows and the
manure will do good there instead of
wasting in the barnyard.
Later in the season there is the sod
that will go in corn the next spring and
all during the fall and winter the ma
nure. can be going out on the sod to
be turned under in the spring
Years ago the New Hampshire sta
ton spread manure in the fall on one
piece of land and let it lie all winter.
On another piece the manure was
spread in the fall at the same time and
at once turned under. On third piece
the manure was spread in the spring
and the whole land was plowed for
corn
The plot on which the manure had
lain on the surface all winter made
the heaviest crop. And that was in a
climate where the soil was frozen hard
all winter.
Whatever of value teaches from the
manure on the surface will be alb
sorbed and retained by the soil, for the
soil has a wonderful power of absorb
ing manurial matters, and the only
thing that will readily leach into the
drainage waters will be the nitrateS,
and there is little formation of nitrates
during the cold of winter, the change
from organic nitrogen to ammonia and
thence to nitrates being accomplished
by forms of bacteria that need a high
temperature for their activity.
The manure spreader is the most
useful implement that has been invent
I'd of late years. 1t is not only great
labor saver but through the better
lining of the manure it is made to so
further and do more good than when
roughly spread on by hand. In the
sro"'inr~ scarcity of farm labor in all
parts of the country it behooves the
i..rmers to take advantage of labor
saving implements, for horse labor is
cheaper By far than hand labor by
non.
l am frequently asked which is the
pest manure spreader. l feel like re-
plying as the man is said to have re-
olied when asked the question about
the best whisky. He said that he
thought all whisky good, though some
might be better than others.
of MAJ M "a f0r fl,a1r will