The Democratic advocate., 1909-04-09
SAYING BARNYARD MANURE.
How One Farmer Saved His Fertilizer
for the Fields.

When we moved on our farm we
found a small barn on the place, To-
Gated away out in the middle OF the
field some fifteen rods from the house,
with no fence to keep the cattle from
straying all oyer the meadow when
they were brought in from the pas
ture.
The manure made through the win
ter season was thrown out of the
stable windows and left against the
side of the barn till the time came to
draw it out in the spring of the year.
There the SHOWS and the rains fell. on
it. There the sun beat down upon it
and the frosts did their part toward
stealing away the goodness of the fer
tilizer made from day to day. Away
from those heaps of manure ran lit
tie stream of rich liquid manure. In
the spring the grass along the course
of the little river was beautifully
green. There was SO much to be cred
tied to the plan of storing the manure
in that way, but no such streak fol-
lowed the path of the Invisible
streams of goodness that took their
way toward the clouds. All one could
see of that was the cloud that rose OF
sunshiny morning from the piles
by the side of the barn, telling surely
of the fertility that was wasting It's
substance on the air.
Although we went to the farm from
a life in the city we knew enough to
he sure that that was no way to store
harvard manure. We needed every
bit we could make on the farm. All
that went to fetrilize the sky would
do us no good.
So we made up our minds to change
the program so that this loss might be
stopped, continues this correspondent
of Farmers Review. And one day that
barn found itself travelling across the
fields to a site nearer to the house
It was set upon a basement and made
about twice as large as 1T had been
before. The stables were below the
ground floor, and faced away from the
shed in the rear, so that we could
throw the manure out under the shed
back of the stock. There it was kept
nice and dry through the winter
months.
The horse stables were convenient
to the cow stables, so that we could
use the strawy part of the horse ma
nure for taking up the liquid manure
in the cutters behind the cows. Thls
we believe to be a good plan. Horse
manure if stored by itself will just
about all burn up with ire-fang and
be wasted Mixed with cow manure
the heating is greatly, if not entirely,
lessened and so the value OF the whole
increased.
> BY using plenty of straw for bed
ding the COWS we also added to the
amount of homemade fertilizer pro-
duced on the farm. This added much
toward keeping the COWS dry and
clean while shut up in the barn
through the winter season. Many
farmers are not as careful about this
as they might be. There COWS are left
to lie on the bare, cold floor. They
show it, too in the filth-laden sides OF
their bodies.
Some have called me a crank on
this subject of barnyard manure. That
is all right. If l can save what natu-
rally belongs to the farm and give 1t
back to the farm, it seems to me that
I am in that way making my farm SO
much the better. The fact is we might
do much toward putting stop to the
crv of exhausted farming lands II we
would take more pains to save the fer-
tility that naturally belongs to the
farm. By keeping more COWS ana reed
ing out all the stuff produced we can
bring our farms back to their natlVe
state of fertility 1t is worth doing