Oxford Democrat., 1908-06-16

1t will be unnecessary for me to poin
out the high value of barnyard manure
and that a well kept manure pit may b,
taken as one of the surest indications o
thrift and success in farming. But il il
hard to persuade man to abandon hi
time honored practice of storing tht
barnyard manure under the caves of tn,
barn and upon the steep hillside tha
forms one border of the nearby brook
Still, he should understand the idea tha
the manure must be as carefully pre-
served from unnecessary waste as any
other product of the farm.
Decaying barnyard manure will bt
found the best method of replacing hu
mus (decaying vegetable matter) upor
the land. All the commercial fertilizer
you can heap upon your land cannot
place pound of humus, that valuable
constituent of every productive soil, in
to your land. And the more decaying
vegetable matter is Incorporated in your
soil the better will it withstand season
of drouth, for the decaying vegetable
matter holds PARTICLES of water and gives
it up slowly to the rootlets of the grow
ing plants.
Sometimes it is possible to haul the
manure from the stall and spread it on
the field without further handling.
This method, however, is often found
impracticable, so that suitable place
should be prepared to store it for some
time before one is ready TO spread it.
The best method of controlling fer
mentation in the manure heap and at
the same time prevent harmful 'tre-
fanging" is the supply of moisture.
The addition of water lowers the tenn
perature and thus retards fermentation.
The need of keeping moist manure is
especially marked in the case of horse
manure, which is naturally dry and de-
composes very rapidly. Hence it is wise
policy to sprinkle or water the manure
heap regularly with the teachings from
the manure. In France this method of
preserving manure is generally practiced,
and the product is very highly esteemed
as fertilizer. The manure is very dark
colored, or even black, while the straw
loses its component parts and becomes
soft.
The way to make such a manure pit
is as follows: To the depth of three
feet dig out sufficiently large space,
sloping both plats toward the centre.
In the center dig out trench two feet
wide by one foot deep, so as to catch
and hold the teachings from both ma
nure piles. Cover the sloping parts and
trench with cement, so that none of the
teachings can escape into the ground.
The manure is-placed on the inclined
plats, so arranged that the teachings
drain into the trench, from which they
are pumped up and distributed over the
manure heap. 1t is best to provide two
manure heaps, so arranged that when
one is full, six to eight feet high, it may
be allowed to ferment undisturbed while
the other is being filed. The sides of
the heaps are kept intact with old
boards to prevent the too free access Of
air.
Some one may object to the cost of a
few barrels of cement necessary to line
the bottom and trench of this kind of
manure pit. The small cost, however,
should hinder no one from carrying out
the above plan-for what are the bene-
fits derived from such method? By
placing layer of straw between layers
of manure you can make just twice as
much well rotted barnyard manure as
by any other way. And if you keep
two to four head of horses and four to
six head of cat tie, and faithfully carry
out the above plan, it will not take many
years before you can laugh at the Fertil-
izer Trust and you can pity the man
who is still in the deadly grasp of the
Fertilizer Trust.-P. C.. Henry, Con-
over, n. Y, in Tribune Farmer.