AN ENGLISH PLAN OF KEEPING MANURE.
“I would like to know,” said the Deacon, “how Mr. Lawrence manages his
manure, especially as his method has received such high commendation.”
Charley got the second volume of “Morton’s Cyclopædia of Agriculture,”
from the book shelves, and turned to the article on “Manure.” He found
that Mr. Lawrence adopted the “Box System” of feeding cattle, and used
cut or chaffed straw for bedding. And Mr. Lawrence claims that by this
plan “manure will have been made under the most perfect conditions.” And
“when the boxes are full at those periods of the year at which manure is
required for the succeeding crops, it will be most advantageously
disposed of by being transferred at once to the land, and covered in.”
“Good,” said the Deacon, “I think he is right there.” Charley continued,
and read as follows:
“But there will be accumulations of manure requiring removal from the
homestead at other seasons, at which it cannot be so applied, and when
it must be stored for future use. The following has been found an
effectual and economical mode of accomplishing this; more particularly
when cut litter is used, it saves the cost of repeated turnings, and
effectually prevents the decomposition and waste of the most active and
volatile principle.
“Some three or more spots are selected according to the size of the
farm, in convenient positions for access to the land under tillage, and
by the side of the farm roads. The sites fixed on are then excavated
about two feet under the surrounding surface. In the bottom is laid some
three or four inches of earth to absorb any moisture, on which the
manure is emptied from the carts. This is evenly spread, and well
trodden as the heap is forming. As soon as this is about a foot above
the ground level, to allow for sinking, the heap is gradually gathered
in, until it is completed in the form of an ordinary steep roof,
slightly rounded at the top by the final treading. In the course of
building this up, about a bushel of salt, to two cart-loads of dung is
sprinkled amongst it. The base laid out at any one time should not
exceed that required by the manure ready for the complete formation of
the heap as far as it goes; and within a day or two after such portion
is built up, and it has settled into shape, a thin coat of earth in a
moist state is plastered _entirely_ over the surface. Under these
conditions decomposition does not take place, in consequence of the
exclusion of the air; or at any rate to so limited an extent, that the
ammonia is absorbed by the earth, for there is not a trace of it
perceptible about the heap; though, when put together without such
covering, this is perceptible enough to leeward at a hundred yards’
distance.
“When heaps thus formed are resorted to in the autumn, either for the
young seeds, or for plowing in on the stubbles after preparing for the
succeeding root crop, the manure will be found undiminished in quantity
and unimpaired in quality; in fact, simply consolidated. Decomposition
then proceeds within the soil, where all its results are appropriated,
and rendered available for the succeeding cereal as well as the root
crop.
“It would be inconvenient to plaster the heap, were the ridge, when
settled, above six or seven feet from the ground level; the base may be
formed about ten to twelve feet wide, and the ridge about nine feet from
the base, which settles down to about seven feet; this may be extended
to any length as further supplies of manure require removal. One man is
sufficient to form the heap, and it is expedient to employ the same man
for this service, who soon gets into the way of performing the work
neatly and quickly. It has been asked where a farmer is to get the earth
to cover his heaps--it may be answered, keep your roads scraped when
they get muddy on the surface during rainy weather--in itself good
economy--and leave this in small heaps beyond the margin of your roads.
This, in the course of the year, will be found an ample provision for
the purpose, for it is unnecessary to lay on a coat more than one or two
inches in thickness, which should be done when in a moist state. At any
rate, there will always be found an accumulation on headlands that may
be drawn upon if need be.
“Farmers who have not been in the habit of bestowing care on the
manufacture and subsequent preservation of their manure, and watching
results, have no conception of the importance of this. A barrowful of
such manure as has been described, would produce a greater weight of
roots and corn, than that so graphically described by the most talented
and accomplished of our agricultural authors--as the contents of
‘neighbour Drychaff’s dung-cart, that creaking hearse, that is carrying
to the field the dead body whose spirit has departed.’
“There is a source of valuable and extremely useful manure on every
farm, of which very few farmers avail themselves--the gathering together
in one spot of all combustible waste and rubbish, the clippings of
hedges, scouring of ditches, grassy accumulation on the sides of roads
and fences, etc., combined with a good deal of earth. If these are
carted at leisure times into a large circle, or in two rows, to supply
the fire kindled in the center, in a spot which is frequented by the
laborers on the farm, with a three-pronged fork and a shovel attendant,
and each passer-by is encouraged to add to the pile whenever he sees the
smoke passing away so freely as to indicate rapid combustion, a very
large quantity of valuable ashes are collected between March and
October. In the latter month the fire should be allowed to go out; the
ashes are then thrown into a long ridge, as high as they will stand, and
thatched while dry. This will be found an invaluable store in April,
May, and June, capable of supplying from twenty to forty bushels of
ashes per acre, according to the care and industry of the collector, to
drill with the seeds of the root crop.”
The Deacon got sleepy before Charley finished reading. “We can not
afford to be at so much trouble in this country,” he said, and took up
his hat and left.
The Deacon is not altogether wrong. Our climate is very different from
that of England, and it is seldom that farmers need to draw out manure,
and pile it in the field, except in winter, and then it is not
necessary, I think, either to dig a pit or to cover the heap. Those who
draw manure from the city in summer, may probably adopt some of Mr.
Lawrence’s suggestions with advantage.
The plan of collecting rubbish, brush, old wood, and sods, and
converting them into ashes or charcoal, is one which we could often
adopt with decided advantage. Our premises would be cleaner, and we
should have less fungus to speck and crack our apples and pears, and, in
addition, we should have a quantity of ashes or burnt earth, that is not
only a manure itself, but is specially useful to mix with moist
superphosphate and other artificial manures, to make them dry enough and
bulky enough to be easily and evenly distributed by the drill.
Artificial manures, so mixed with these ashes, or dry, charred earth,
are less likely to injure the seed than when sown with the seed in the
drill-rows, unmixed with some such material. Sifted coal ashes are also
very useful for this purpose.