Farmyard manure

“ In Forfarshire, farmyard manure or stable manure is largely employed (at the rate of 12 to 14 tons, and in some cases even 20 tons per acre) , and it is also largely supplemented by artificial manures. These latter are applied to the extent of about 10 cwt., and consist of superphosphate, dissolved bones, and potash salts. Six tons of potatoes are considered a fair crop. In [Pg 521] East Lothian the manuring is similar, with the exception that farmyard manure is applied in even larger quantities—30 to 40 tons being often used. Sometimes potatoes are grown with artificial manures alone. ”

“ Experiments by the author on turnip-manuring, carried out in different parts of the South and West of Scotland, showed that while farmyard manure is valuable in giving the crop a good start and bringing it well forward during the period of germination and early growth, by supplying a certain amount of easily assimilable plant-food, and in the case of dry weather attracting a quantity of moisture, its application in quantities of 20 or even 10 tons per [Pg 517] acre can scarcely be regarded as profitable, giving to farmyard manure a nominal value of a few shillings a ton. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For light land, four barrow-loads of well-rotted farmyard manure per square pole will make an excellent dressing, but a rather smaller amount will suffice for heavy ground. In place of farmyard manure an unlimited quantity of leaf-soil, if obtainable, may be used, and it is also a good plan to dig in any available green refuse. Garden ground which for some years previously has been kept in a state of high cultivation by the liberal use of natural manure will not, as a rule, need further help in this direction, but it should receive a good dressing of lime. ”

“ And it is principally of very great importance because what we call bulk manures, i.e., farmyard manures, pulp, composts, and top soil, are difficult to procure in large quantities, and cost much to apply, as they have to be carried on coolies' heads, and often for considerable distances, down the rows of coffee trees. The more, then, we can limit our applications of bulk manure to such lands as urgently require them, the better shall we be able to devote a full supply to the soil which most requires such manures. ”

“ Direct experiments have shown that 100 cwt. of fresh farmyard manure are reduced to 80 cwt. if allowed to lie till the straw is half rotten; 100 cwt. of fresh farmyard manure are reduced to 60 cwt. if allowed to ferment till it becomes 'fat or cheesy'; 100 cwt. of fresh farmyard manure are reduced to 40-50 cwt. if completely decomposed. This loss not only affects the water and other less valuable constituents of farmyard manure, but also its most fertilising ingredients. Chemical analysis has shown that 100 cwt. of common farmyard manure contain about 40 lb. ”

“ Now, it is one of the problems of present-day farming that soil is becoming depleted of its humus. This is due to the increasing scarcity of farmyard manure in many districts, and the consequent use of mineral fertilisers to supply nitrogen, potash, and phosphate to the crop. A need has therefore arisen for a substitute for farmyard manure, by means of which the humus content of soils may be kept up in districts where natural manure is scarce. ”

“ However, manures are useful with all soils, and necessary with many. Happy is the planter who is so placed that he can obtain a plentiful supply of farmyard or pen manure, as this gives excellent results. "Mulching" is also recommended. This consists of covering the ground with decaying leaves, grasses, etc., which keep the soil in a moist and open condition during the dry season. If artificial manures are used they should vary according to the soil, and, although he can obtain considerable help from the analyst, the planter's most reliable guide will be experiment on the spot. ”

“ No weeds choke the wheat plants or rob them of their food; but that field does not produce as much wheat by 30 bushels per acre as the season is capable of producing. Why? The answer is evident. Because the wheat plants do not find food enough in the soil. Now, anything that will furnish this food, anything that will cause that field to produce what the climate or season is capable of producing, is manure. A gardener may increase his crops by artificial heat, or by an increased supply of water, but this is not manure. ”

“ The sight of that wheat field impressed me, as nothing else could, with the importance of guarding against the loss of available nitrogen from leaching, and it has changed my practice in two or three important respects. I realize, as never before, the importance of applying manure to crops, rather than to the land. I mean by this, that the object of applying manure is, not simply to make land rich, but to make crops grow. Manure is a costly and valuable article, and we want to convert XII it into plants, with as little delay as possible, which will, directly or indirectly, bring in some money. ”

“ But if you live in a town you may not be able to get farm manure easily, and then you would find a chemical one useful. Clay’s Fertilizer is a well-known manure, and so is Shefa, but many people have killed their plants by using too much of them. A tablespoonful to the square yard is enough, and it should be scattered evenly over the surface before it is dug in. There are many other chemical manures, but it is not necessary for you to know much about them yet. If your grown-ups understand them, they will provide you with what your [9] soil needs ”

“ Solid manures in their fresh state are of but very little use to plants. It is only as they are decomposed, and have their nitrogen turned into ammonia, and their other ingredients resolved into the condition required by plants, that they are of much value as fertilizers. We have seen that, if this decomposition takes place without proper precautions being made, the most valuable parts of the manure would be lost. Nor would it be prudent to keep manures from decomposing until they are applied to the soil, for then they are not immediately ready for use, and time is lost. ”

“ A person signing himself a "Nobleman's Gardener," says in an English paper that it is a mistake to use poultry manure as a top-dressing for garden crops; for farm crops also, if the poultry and pigeon dung were in any considerable bulk. This, however, is not usually the case, and a hundred weight or two would not make much of an impression on a farm. The manure in question is a powerful fertilizer, containing ammonia, phosphates, and carbonate of lime in considerable quantity, also uric acid, all of which are valuable ingredients for the support of crops. ”

“ After the plant has filled the pot with roots it will often be necessary to supply more food as the soil becomes exhausted. This may be done by digging out the top soil down to the young, white roots, replacing with new soil in which a little rotted manure, a pinch of bone-meal or other plant-food, has been added. Liquid manure may be used. This liquid manure is made from well rotted cow-, horse-, or sheep-manure thrown into a tub or barrel, covered with water, and allowed to stand until the strength of the manure is soaked out. ”

“ The chief objection to the use of stable manure, however, even when well rotted, is that it induces a free growth of foliage instead of promoting an early development of fruit. The most enduring method is that which is based on chemical knowledge of the constituents of the soil, and the relation which the plant bears to it. One of the most successful growers for the London market almost entirely avoids the use of stable manure, and he is able, by applications of nitrate of potash, dissolved bones, and the occasional use of lime, to grow splendid crops in the same houses year after year. ”

“ This condition is fulfilled only by substances derived from the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and most effectually by a mixture of both. On this account, and also because its properties are such as enable it to act powerfully on the soil, farm-yard manure must always be of the highest importance. It is, in fact, the typical manure, and in proportion as other substances approach it in properties and composition, is their value for general purposes on the farm.
Farm-yard manure is a mixture of the dung and urine of domestic animals, with the straw used as litter ”

“ Vegetable growers often prefer a slower and more continuous action, and the rotting of manure under right conditions changes the liquid nitrogen into compounds that act more slowly.
The solid material in horse manure contains less water than that of the cow, and this absence of water permits quick fermentation when air is present. The use of large quantities of such manure per acre is not liked by vegetable-growers. Rotting under control in a covered barnyard has a beneficial effect for this reason when a hot manure is not wanted. ”

“ In good soils there is no reason why their effect should not be as lasting as that of farm-yard manure, which, in many particulars, they considerably resemble. The method of applying sea-weeds most generally in use, is to spread them on the soil, and plough them in after putrefaction has commenced, and it is on the whole the most advantageous. But they are sometimes composted with lime and earth, or mixed with farm-yard manure, and occasionally, also, they are used as a top-dressing to grass land. ”

“ One thing is certain, we do not, in many cases, get anything like as much benefit from our manure as the ingredients it contains would lead us to expect.
Mr. Lawes, on his clayey soil at Rothamsted, England, has grown over thirty crops of wheat, year after year, on the same land. One plot has received 14 tons of barn-yard manure per acre every year, and yet the produce from this plot is no larger, and, in fact, is frequently much less, than from a few hundred pounds of artificial manure containing far less nitrogen. ”

“ Our dairy farmers either compost home-made manures with that from the city, spread it on the land for corn in the spring, or rot it separate, to use in the fall for wheat, on land that has been cropped with oats the same year. The manure put on for potatoes is generally estimated to enrich the land sufficient for it to produce one crop of winter grain, and from five to seven crops of grass, when it is again plowed and cultivated in rotation with, first, corn, second, potatoes or oats, and is reseeded in autumn of the same year. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And that the land is not remarkably rich, is evident from the fact that some of the farms in the neighborhood, produce, under the ordinary system of management, but little more wheat, once in four or five years than is raised every year on this experimental plot without any manure.
Why? Because these farmers do not half work their land, and the manure they make is little better than rotten straw. Mr. Lawes’ wheat-field is plowed twice every year, and when I was there, the crop was hand-hoed two or three times in the spring. Not a weed is suffered to grow. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Well-decayed manure needs but little going over in the spring, requiring only the removal of the foreign material and the straw chaff it may contain. What remains is generally the color of the soil, thus unnoticeable and acts as a mulch during the summer. Fresh manure may be used—in fact it is better, because the plants receive the benefit of the leachings, which is pretty well spent in old manure. ”

“ I am perfectly aware, that on stiff clay land, farm-yard manure, more especially long dung, when plowed in before the frost sets in, exercises a most beneficial action by keeping the soil loose, and admitting the free access of frost, which pulverizes the land, and would, therefore, by no means recommend to leave the manure spread on the surface without plowing it in. All I wish to enforce is, that when no other choice is left but either to set up the manure in a heap in a corner of the field, or to spread it on the field, without plowing it in directly, to adopt the latter plan. ”