PREPARATION OF THE MANURE.
Get as good a quality of fresh horse manure as you can, and in
sufficient quantity for the amount of bed or beds you wish to make. Next
get it into suitable condition for making up into beds. This can be done
out of doors or under cover of a shed, but preferably in the shed. Out
of doors the manure is under the drying influence of sun and wind, and
it is also liable to become over-wetted by rain, but under cover we have
full control of its condition. All the manure for beds between July and
the end of October is prepared out of doors on a dry piece of ground,
but what is used after the first of November, all through the winter, is
handled in a shed open to the south. During the autumn months we get
along very well with it out of doors; after every turning cover the heap
with strawy litter to save it from the drying influences of sun and
wind. Remove this covering when next turned, and lay light wooden
shutters on top of it as a precaution against rain. In the shed in
winter the manure is protected against rain and snow and we can always
work it conveniently; when the shed is open to the south--as wagon and
wood-sheds often are--we get the benefit of the warm sunshine in the
daytime in starting fermentation in the manure, but in the event of
dull, cold weather, cover up the pile quite snugly with straw and
shutters to start the heat in it. Altogether, a warm, close shed would
be better.
It seldom happens that one can get all the manure he wants at one time;
it accumulates by degrees. This is the case with the market grower who
uses many tons, and hauls it home from the city stables a little at a
time; also with the private grower, who uses only a few bushels or half
a cord, and has it accumulate for days or weeks from his own stable. As
the manure accumulates throw it into a pile, straw and all, but not into
such a big pile that it will heat violently; and particularly observe
that it shall not "fire-fang" or "burn" in the heap. If it shows any
tendency to do this, turn it over loosely, sprinkle it freely with
water, spread it out a little, and after a few hours, or when it has
cooled off nicely, throw it up into a pile again and tread it firmly to
keep it moist and from heating hastily.
When enough manure has accumulated for a bed, prepare it in the
following way: Turn it over, shaking it up loosely and mixing it all
well together. Throw aside the dry, strawy part, also any white "burnt"
manure that may be in it, and all extraneous matter, as sticks, stones,
old tins, bones, leather straps, rags, scraps of iron, or such other
trash as we usually find in manure heaps, but do not throw out any of
the wet straw; indeed, we should aim to retain all the straw that has
been well wetted in the stable. If the manure is too dry do not hesitate
to sprinkle it freely with water, and it will take a good deal of water
to well moisten a heap of dry manure. Then throw it into a compact
oblong pile about three or four feet high, and tread it down a little.
This is to prevent hasty and violent heating and "burning," for firmly
packed manure does not heat up so readily or whiten so quickly as does a
pile loosely thrown together. Leave it undisturbed until fermentation
has started briskly, which in early fall may be in two or three days,
or in winter in six to ten days, then turn it over again, shaking it up
thoroughly and loosely and keeping what was outside before inside now,
and what was inside before toward the outside now; and if there are any
unduly dry parts moisten them as you go along. Trim up the heap into the
same shape as you had before, and again tread it down firmly. This
compacting of the pile at every turning reduces the number of required
turnings. When hot manure is turned and thrown loosely into a pile it
regains its great heat so rapidly that it will need turning again within
twenty-four hours, in order to save it from burning, and all practical
men know that at every turning ammonia is wasted,--the most potent food
of the mushroom. We should therefore endeavor to get along with as few
turnings as possible; at the same time, never allow any part of the
manure to burn, even if we have to turn the heap every day. These
turnings should be continued until the manure has lost its tendency to
heat violently, and its hot, rank smell is gone,--usually in about three
weeks' time. If the manure, or any part of it, is too dry at any
turning, the dry part should be sprinkled with water and kept in the
middle of the heap. Plain water is what is generally used for moistening
the manure, but I sometimes use liquid from the stable tanks, which not
only answers the purpose of wetting the dry materials, but it also is a
powerful stimulant and welcome addition to the manure. But the greatest
vigilance should be observed to guard against overmoistening the manure;
far better fail on the side of dryness than on that of wetness.
If the manure is too wet to begin with it should be spread out thinly
and loosely and exposed to sun and wind, if practicable, to dry. Drying
by exposure in this way is not as enervating as "burning" in a hot
pile, and better have recourse to any method of drying the manure than
use it wet. If, on account of the weather or lack of convenience for
drying, the manure can not be dried enough, add dry loam, dry sand, dry
half-rotted leaves, dry peat moss, dry chaff, or dry finely cut hay or
straw, and mix together.
The proper condition of the manure, as regards dryness or moistness, can
readily be known by handling it. Take a handful of the manure and
squeeze it tight; it should be unctuous enough to hold together in a
lump, and so dry that you can not squeeze a drop of water out of it.
Some private gardeners in England lay particular stress upon collecting
the fresh droppings at the stables every day, and spreading them out
upon a shed or barn floor to dry, and in this way keeping them dry and
from heating until enough has accumulated for a bed, when the bed is
made up entirely of this material, or of part of this and part of loam.
But market gardeners, the ones whose bread and butter depend upon the
crops they raise, never practice this method, and that patriarch in the
business, Richard Gilbert, denounces the practice unstintedly.
Different growers have different ideas of preparing manure for mushroom
beds, but the aim of all is to get it into the best possible condition
with the least labor and expense, and to guard against depriving it of
any more ammonia than can be helped. See Mr. Gardner's method of
preparing manure, p. 22.
=Loam and Manure Mixed.=--Mushroom beds are often formed of loam and
manure mixed together, say one-third or one-fourth part of the whole
being loam, and the other two-thirds or three-fourths manure; if a
larger proportion of loam is used it will render the beds rather cold
unless they are made unusually deep. I am not prepared to affirm or deny
that this mixed material has any advantages over plain manure; I use it
considerably every year and with good results; at the same time, I get
as good crops from the plain manure beds. But it has many warm friends
who are excellent growers.
In preparing this mixed material I use fresh sod loam well chopped up,
and add it to the manure in this way: First select the manure and throw
it into a heap to ferment, as before explained; then after the first
turning cover the heap with a layer of this loam about three or four
inches thick, enough to arrest the steam; at the next turning mix this
casing of loam with the manure, and when the heap is squared off add
another coating of loam of the same thickness in the same way as before,
and so on at each turning until the whole mass is fit for use, and the
full complement of loam, say one-fourth the full bulk, has been added.
In this way much of the ammonia that otherwise would be evaporated from
the manure is arrested and retained.
Some growers, when they first shake out their fresh manure, add the full
complement of loam to it at once and mix them together. Others, again,
Mr. Denton, of Woodhaven, for instance, prepare the manure in the
ordinary way and when ready for use add the quota of loam. I use good
sod loam for two reasons, namely, because it is the very best that can
be used for the purpose, and, also, after being used in the mushroom
beds it is a capital material, and in fine condition for use in potting
soft-wooded plants. But the loam commonly used to mix with the manure is
ordinary field soil. If the loam is ordinarily moist to begin with, and
also the manure, there is very little likelihood of any of the material
getting too dry during the preparation. And much less preparation is
needed, for the presence of the loam lessens, considerably, the
probability of hasty, violent fermentation.
Mr. Withington, of South Amboy, N. J., uses rather a stinted amount of
loam in his manure. He writes me: "We made up our beds this year with a
proportion of loam in the manure, say one part loam to eight parts
manure, but have always used clear manure heretofore, and I think the
beds hold out longer than when only manure is used."