Animal manure

“ Animal manures consist of the animal parts of stable manure, dry and liquid, parts of bones, brine, spoiled meat, kitchen slops, soapsuds, and all dead animals. In decaying, these substances all pass through a process of fermentation. Left exposed without suitable care, they become unhealthy and offensive. ”

“ The pigs should be fed on food rich in nitrogen, such as bran, malt-combs, brewers’ grains, the refuse animal matter from the slaughter-houses or butchers’ stores, fish scrap, pea or lentil-meal, palm-nut cake, or such food as will furnish the most nitrogenous food, other things being equal, at the cheapest rate.
The market-gardener not only requires large quantities of rich manure, but he wants them to act quickly. ”

“ It has also been used with beneficial results for wheat, grass, and turnips. As a manure it is best suited for sandy or loamy soils. Considerable quantities are exported to the sugar-growing colonies as a manure for sugar-cane. Manures are made from other animal refuse. It may be mentioned that lean flesh (containing 75 per cent of water) has about 3 to 4 per cent of nitrogen,.5 per cent of alkalies, and .5 per cent of phosphoric acid; that is to say, a ton of lean flesh would contain about 70 lb. of nitrogen and 10 lb. ”

“ No manure should be allowed to accumulate where it will be exposed to flies for even a few minutes. Immediately after it is dropped by an animal, it should be removed and covered. Manure may be treated with considerable quantities of lime without interfering with its fertilizing value, and in this way the development of the eggs laid in it by the flies can be practically prevented. ”

“ One of the other evils of stable management often allowed, is the accumulation of manure. It is not within the scope of this article to notice the evil the neglect to save manure works to the farm and the farmer. But that the accumulation of the manure in the stable is a hurt to the horse, no sensibly reasoning person can doubt. Its fermentation gives off obnoxious gases which pollute and poison the air the [Pg 37] horse is compelled to breathe, and thus in turn poison the animal's blood. This is a more fruitful cause of disease than is generally supposed. ”

“ Hence it happens that 100 lbs. of dry hen-manure would usually be richer in nitrogen than 100 lbs. of dry pig-manure. But feed pigs on peas, and hens on corn, and the dry pig-manure would be much richer in nitrogen than the dry hen-manure. The value of the manure, other things being equal, depends on the food and not on the animal.
Let no man think he is going to make his farm any richer by keeping hens, ducks, and geese, than he will by keeping sheep, pigs, and horses. ”

“ Butchers' hog-pen manure is one of the best fertilizers known. It is made by animals that live almost entirely on blood and other animal refuse, and is very rich in nitrogen and the phosphates. It should be mixed with prepared muck, or its substitute, to prevent the loss of its ammonia, and as a protection against its injurious effect on plants.
POULTRY HOUSE MANURE.
Next in value to night soil, among domestic manures, are the excrements of poultry, pigeons, etc. Birds live on the nice bits of creation, seeds, insects, etc., and they discharge their solid and liquid excrements together. ”

“ Before being used the turfy ingredients of composts should lie together in a heap only long enough for the roots of the herbage to die, not to decompose.
Manures (see Manure) .—These are of two classes, organic and inorganic—the former being of animal and vegetable, the latter of mineral origin. The following are organic manures:
Farm-yard manure consists of the mixed dung of horses and cattle thrown together, and more or less soaked with liquid drainings of the stable or byre. ”

“ Animal Manures—Their relative value and mode of Action—Difference between Animal and Vegetable Manures—Cause of this difference—Mineral Manures —Nitrates of Potash and Soda—Sulphate of Soda, Gypsum, Chalk, and Quicklime—Chemical action of these Manures—Artificial Manures—Burning and Irrigation of the Soil—Planting and laying down to grass. ”

“ The house fly can not bite, its mouth parts being spread out at the tip for sucking up liquid substances.
The eggs (figs. 4, 5) are laid upon horse manure. This substance seems to be its favorite larval food. It will breed also in human excrement, and because of this habit it is very dangerous to the health of human beings, carrying as it does the germs of intestinal diseases, such as typhoid fever and cholera, from the -4- excreta to food supplies. It has also been found to breed freely in hog manure, in considerable numbers in chicken dung, and to some extent in cow manure. ”

“ It is of no use whatever to think of getting things to grow without manure. This is the life and soul of all garden operations. Almost everything can be converted into manure. The grass from lawns, fallen leaves, weeds, and all vegetable matter, afford good light [Pg 92] manure. Strong manures are prepared from horse, cow, sheep, and goat dung. The dung of fowls and rabbits is also most excellent; and where fowls or rabbits are kept, their dung should be preserved with great care, and put by itself into a rotting-pit, or into a tank, and kept wet. ”

“ All observers agree that the female fly prefers to deposit her eggs in horse manure when this can be found and when this is piled in heaps in the barn-yard (Fig. 48) or in the field the heat caused by the decay and fermentation makes ideal conditions for the development of the larvæ. Cow manure may serve as a breeding-place to a limited extent. The flies are immediately attracted to human excrement and breed freely in it when opportunity offers. Decaying vegetables or fruit, fermenting kitchen refuse and other materials sometimes also serve as breeding-places. ”

“ MANURES Manure of some sort is essential to the growing of plants in pots or boxes, both because of the plant-food it adds to the soil, and because it improves its mechanical condition and sponginess or water-holding quality. Thoroughly rotted horse manure or horse and cow manure mixed is by far the best. Cow manure alone, or pig manure, is lumpy and cold, and hen, sheep, pigeon or other special manures are not safe in the hands of the beginner, as they are one-sided, being especially rich in nitrogen and likely either to burn the plants or to cause too soft and watery growth. ”

“ In using liquid manures either on the open ground or on potted plants, they should only be applied when the soil has been well watered the day before, never when it is dry. The plant, being supplied with all it needs to drink, absorbs only what it requires for nourishment and is less likely to be injured by an 29overdose. The moisture in the soil serves also to reduce the strength of the manure.
In applying old cow or horse manure to new beds a wheel-barrow load to every nine square feet is not too much for strong growing plants such as Ricinus, Cannas, and Salvias. ”

“ This is no new thing under the sun; not a few who have been in the habit, and found great results, have tried to keep a monopoly, and have been more or less close-mouthed in the matter. Perhaps one of the oldest forms of this feeding extra stimulants to their pets was in the form of liquid manure made from various materials, as horse, sheep, cow, and other manures. They are sometimes prepared with ever so much mystery in the matter of quantity, time of preparation, quantity given, etc., all of which was supposed to have its influence. ”

“ Tompkins.
“If Janet adds to her poultry business and buys pigeons and other feathered fowl very soon, we can use that manure for the beds. I’ve heard that poultry manure is best for flowers,” ventured Mrs. James.
“I’ll tell you what I do,” returned Mrs. Tompkins. “I believe poultry manure is one of the best to be had for any purpose with plants, as it is rich in nitrogen, easily stored and handled, and does not contain the grain or weed seeds that stall manure has and always reproduces when used in the garden. ”

“ The farmers who try artificial manures are the men who usually take the greatest pains to make the best and most manure 215 from the animals kept on the farm. They know what manures cost and what they are worth. As a rule, too, such men are good farmers, and endeavor to work their land thoroughly and keep it clean. When this is the case, there can be little doubt that we can often use artificial manures to great advantage.
“You say,” said the Deacon, who had been looking over the tables while I was talking, “that mixed mineral manures and 50 lbs. of ammonia give 393⁄4 bushels per acre. ”

“ We have learned that flies are always found about horse manure, because it makes a good place in which to hatch their eggs. If we could dispose of the manure, there would be one place less for the fly to lay her eggs. Behind barns we usually find piles of manure. It is in these heaps that the fly lays her eggs, not in the little lumps found in the streets. Now, there is no sense in keeping this great pile of manure about any barn. In towns the manure can be put into a box with a cover, so that the flies cannot get at it. ”

“ It is unquestionably true, that the same amount of nitrogen in barn-yard manure, will not produce so great an effect as its theoretical value would indicate. There can be no doubt, however, that the better we feed our animals, and the more carefully we save the liquids, the more valuable and active will be the manure. ”

“ Their effect, however, is to a large extent only of a temporary nature; and in attempting to assess the unexhausted value of a manure a year or two after its application, we must remember this fact.
Some manures are very speedily taken up by plants, and some are very easily washed out of the soil. Others, again, it would seem highly probable, have a tendency to become converted into a more or less inert condition after a while. This remark may be especially applied to the fertilising constituents (chiefly nitrogen) in farmyard manure. ”

“ If they must be used in such localities, place the stables or pickets in dry locations well apart from marshes, and stagnant water. Keep the stables dark during the surra season, open to light on one side only and with screens in the windows. Make a deep pit for the manure, keep it well darkened and screened and turn every particle of manure into this several times a day so that the stable shall be perfectly clean. All rubbish heaps should be similarly dealt with. The flies breed in the manure and decaying organic matter. ”

“ Cassius advises that the manure next in value to that of doves is human feces, and third that of goats and sheep and asses. The manure of horses is of the least value on corn land, but on meadows it is the best, because, like the manure of other draught animals fed on barley, it brings a heavy stand of grass. The manure pit should be near the barn in order that it may be available with the least labour. If you plant a stake of oak wood in the manure pit it will not harbour serpents. ”

“ The greatest difficulty that we have to encounter in the management of manure grows out of our dry summers. During our summer months, unless sufficient moisture is obtained, the manure dries out rapidly, becomes fire-fanged and practically worthless. My practice upon the College farm has been to give the bottom of the barn-yard a “dishing” form, so that it holds all the water that falls upon it. The manure I keep as flat as possible, taking pains to place it where the animals will keep it trod down solid. ”

“ The Bureau of Entomology for a number of years has advised that manure from horse stables be kept in fly-tight pits or bins. Such pits can be built in or attached to the stable so that manure can be easily thrown in at the time of cleaning and so constructed that the manure can be readily removed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ You let a dozen pigs sleep in a pen all night, and as soon as they hear you putting the food in the troughs outside, they come to the door of the pen, and there discharge the liquid and solid excrements on the mass of manure left there on purpose to receive and absorb them. I am well aware that as pigs are often managed, we lose at least half the value of their manure, but there is no necessity for this. ”

“ He usually sells his fat sheep in March. As soon as the sheep are removed, the manure is either thrown up into loose heaps in the yard, or drawn directly to the field, where it is to be used, and made into a heap there. The manure is not spread on the land until the autumn. It remains in the heaps or piles all summer, being usually turned once, and sometimes twice. The manure becomes thoroughly rotted. ”

“ It mixes well with soil and leaf-mold. When once rotted, this manure is very lasting and easily assimilated by plants. Horse Manure is very likely to become overheated, and to lose its value; and it is too loose and dry for many purposes. Pig Manure, unless well composted with soil or refuse, is usually too heavy and rich. Sheep Manure is at its best when used in a liquid form, although it is most excellent to mix with soil to loosen it.
All garden refuse, such as vines, leaves, decaying vegetables, will make Manure if composted with soil ”