Truly did the German agriculturist, Schwerz, in seeing the fertile
streamlets oozing and trickling away from the exposed manure piles of
his opinionated countrymen, denominate the dung heap the “Fountainhead
of Benediction.” This, like other blessings, may but too readily be
perverted in its uses.
Impressed with the necessity of husbanding every part and portion of this
substratum of good agriculture, we choose between two distinct methods
of saving and utilizing the fluid and solid _dejecta_, viz.: the dry and
wet. In the former the _dejecta_ are commingled with such absorbents as
dry earth, leaves, straw, sawdust, etc.; in the latter, they are received
in a tank where they are mixed with sufficient water to stay loss by too
rapid fermentation. The application of the manure under either method is
respectively in its dry or in its liquid condition.
[Illustration: Fig. 24.—A COW STABLE WITH MANURE CELLAR.]
If the dry or absorbent method be adopted, it will be found advantageous
to locate the stable on a little declivity, so as to secure a manure
cellar with the least excavation.
Thus, in fig. 24, _C_ represents a manure cellar under the cow, with a
door at _K_ for removal of manure. The floor and walls, to a hight of
two feet, of this cellar should be cemented. The floor, on which the cow
stands, should be of two-inch oak plank, with a gutter behind, and a trap
to empty the contents of the gutter into the cellar. On level tracts
of ground the Flemish stable, as used in parts of the Brabant, and as
described in the following plan fig. 25, by Felix Villeroy (Manuel de
l’Eleveur de Bètes, â Comes, 6 Ed., p. 63), could be advantageously used
for one cow. In figure 25, _A_ is the place where the cow stands; _B_,
Passage for distributing food, etc.; _C_, Depression where the manure is
allowed to accumulate behind the cow; _D_, Cellar for roots; _E_, Hay
loft.
In this plan the floor _A_ and _C_ would require to be finished in brick
and cement, or concrete.
The warmth of the stable might, at times, develop a too rapid
fermentation of the manure. This would be checked by working the pile and
by forking it over.
[Illustration: Fig. 25.—SECTIONAL VIEW OF STABLE.]
But to secure perfect cleanliness, purity of air, and freedom of the
hay stored above from the odors of fermentation going on in the dung
heap, the manure would be better placed outside of the stable walls, as
suggested in figure 26 (see next page).
The bottom of the manure bin is only twenty-four inches below the
surface, as on level ground the labor of raising the manure from a deep
cellar would be disproportionate to the advantages of the depth. The
floor of the stall should be laid in brick and cement, or in concrete,
as should be the floor and lower walls of the manure bin. The floor
of the stall should be kept covered with dry earth, leaves, sawdust,
or spent tan-bark; and the bottom of the bin should be covered to the
depth of several inches, with similar absorbents. In the absence of
these to-be-preferred materials, weeds, straw, or other dry vegetable
refuse, may be used. With the gutter sufficiently inclined, the excessive
urine will of itself flow readily to the bin; the solid matter should
be removed twice daily, just before the cow is milked. The gutter
should be washed down with a pail of water daily, and sprinkled with
gypsum (sulphate of lime). The manure pile, as it increases, should be
constantly commingled with fresh absorbents. This is most readily and
economically done by baiting a pig with a handful of maize cast on the
manure in the bin. The lusty porker will go to the bottom of the pile,
if need be, for each grain, and by his energetic rooting and trampling,
will daily incorporate the materials in the most thorough manner.
[Illustration: Fig. 26.—PLAN OF STABLE WITH CISTERN AND MANURE BIN.]
On page 260 of Boussingault’s Rural Economy (Law’s translation) are some
very urgent warnings against the frequent turning of dung heaps. His
objection, Mr. Law thinks, should be limited to more than three turnings
of the dung. But this objection and limitation apply to horse manure, the
more active fermentation of which rapidly develops the highly volatile
salt known as carbonate of ammonia. There can hardly be too thorough a
working together of cow-manure, with its organic absorbents, particularly
when the working is accompanied by the compacting tread of animals.
The pile should be watched, and the slightest perception of the pungent
ammoniacal odor should be the signal for more absorbents, bearing in mind
that all organic matter thus composted becomes a valuable fertilizer,
and remembering that nothing should be left undone to increase to the
greatest extent possible the source of your anticipated blessings.
The manure bin should, of course, be so covered as to exclude rain and
sunshine.
If the liquid or dilute method be employed, in place of the manure bin in
the plan, it will be necessary to construct an underground cemented tank
or cistern, say of a depth of eight feet and diameter of six to seven
feet at the bottom. This tank must be provided with a pump for raising
the fluid, the tube of which should terminate in a strainer at about
twelve inches from the bottom of the tank. An opening should be left in
the top of the cistern for inspection, and for the insertion of a proper
implement to stir the sediment. The pump should rise sufficiently high to
permit the pumping of the fluid directly into a tank on wheels used for
the distribution thereof in the fields. A condemned watering cart, which
could probably be purchased cheaply, would be an excellent instrument for
this distribution. Sulphate of iron, green vitriol, should be freely used
to change the carbonate of ammonia into the sulphate, thereby obtaining a
fixed, instead of a highly volatile salt.
[Illustration]