Talks on Manures Part 50

"There are several reasons," said the Doctor, "why these manures may have failed to produce any marked effect on the nursery trees. In the first place, there was considerable prejudice against them, and the nurserymen would hardly feel like relying on these manures alone. They probably sowed them on land already well manured; and I think they sowed them too late in the season. I should like to see them fairly tried."

So would I. It seems to me that nitrate of soda, and superphosphate, or dissolved Peruvian guano, could be used with very great advantage and profit by the nurserymen. Of course, it would hardly be safe to depend upon them alone. They should be used either in connection with stable-manure, or on land that had previously been frequently dressed with stable-manure.

MANURE FOR FRUIT-GROWERS.

How to keep up the fertility of our apple-orchards, is becoming an important question, and is attracting considerable attention.

There are two methods generally recommended--I dare not say generally practised. The one, is to keep the orchard in bare-fallow; the other, to keep it in gra.s.s, and top-dress with manure, and either eat the gra.s.s off on the land with sheep and pigs, or else mow it frequently, and let the gra.s.s rot on the surface, for mulch and manure.

"You are speaking now," said the Deacon, "of bearing apple-orchards. No one recommends keeping a young orchard in gra.s.s. We all know that young apple trees do far better when the land is occupied with corn, potatoes, beans, or some other crop, which can be cultivated, than they do on land occupied with wheat, barley, oats, rye, buckwheat, or gra.s.s and clover.

And even with bearing peach trees, I have seen a wonderful difference in an orchard, half of which was cultivated with corn, and the other half sown with wheat. The trees in the wheat were sickly-looking, and bore a small crop of inferior fruit, while the trees in the corn, grew vigorously and bore a fine crop of fruit. And the increased value of the crop of peaches on the cultivated land was far more than we can ever hope to get from a crop of wheat."

"And yet," said the Doctor, "the crop of corn on the cultivated half of the peach-orchard removed far more plant-food from the soil, than the crop of wheat. And so it is evident that the difference is not due wholly to the supply of manure in the surface-soil. It may well be that the cultivation which the corn received favored the decomposition of organic matter in the soil, and the formation of nitrates, and when the rain came, it would penetrate deeper into the loose soil than on the adjoining land occupied with wheat. The rain would carry the nitrogen down to the roots of the peach trees, and this will account for the dark green color of the leaves on the cultivated land, and the yellow, sickly-looking leaves on the trees among the wheat."

HEN-MANURE, AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT.

A bushel of corn fed to a hen would give no more nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, in the shape of manure, than a bushel of corn fed to a pig. The manure from the pig, however, taking the urine and solid excrement together, contain 82 per cent of water, while that from the hen contains only 56 per cent of water. Moreover, hens pick up worms and insects, and their food in such case would contain more nitrogen than the usual food of pigs, and the manure would be correspondingly richer in nitrogen. 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.

"Why is it, then," asked the Deacon, "that hen-dung proves such a valuable manure. I would rather have a hundred lbs. of hen-dung than half a ton of barnyard-manure?"

"And I presume you are right," said I, "but you must recollect that your hen-manure is kept until it is almost chemically dry. Let us figure up what the half ton of manure and the 100 lbs. of hen-manure would contain. Here are the figures, side by side:

--------------------------+---------------+------------- _100 lbs. dry _Half ton Hen-Manure._ Cow-Dung with straw._ --------------------------+---------------+------------- Water (estimated) 12 lbs. 775 lbs.

Organic Matter 51 " 203 "

Ash 37 " 22 "

+---------------+------------- Nitrogen 3 " 3? "

Potash 1 " 4 "

Lime 4 " 3 "

Phosphoric acid 3 " 1 "

I would, myself, far rather have 100 lbs. of your dry hen-manure than half a ton of your farmyard-manure. Your hens are fed on richer food than your cows. The 100 lbs. of hen-manure, too, would act much more rapidly than the half ton of cow-manure. It would probably do twice as much good--possibly three or four times as much good, on the first crop, as the cow-manure. The nitrogen, being obtained from richer and more digestible food, is in a much more active and available condition than the nitrogen in the cow-dung.

"If you go on," said the Deacon, "I think you will prove that I am right."

"I have never doubted," said I, "the great value of hen-dung, as compared with barnyard-manure. And all I wish to show is, that, notwithstanding its acknowledged value, the fact remains that a given quant.i.ty of the same kind of food will give no greater amount of fertilizing matter when fed to a hen than if fed to a pig."

I want those farmers who find so much benefit from an application of hen-manure, ashes, and plaster, to their corn and potatoes, to feel that if they would keep better cows, sheep, and pigs, and feed them better, they would get good pay for their feed, and the manure would enable them to grow larger crops.

While we have been talking, the Deacon was looking over the tables. (See Appendix.) "I see," said he, "that wheat and rye contain more nitrogen than hen-manure, but less potash and phosphoric acid."

"This is true," said I, "but the way to compare them, in order to see the effect of pa.s.sing the wheat through the hen, is to look at the composition of the air-dried hen-dung. The fresh hen-dung, according to the table, contains 56 per cent of water, while wheat contains less than 14 per cent."

Let us compare the composition of 1,000 lbs. air-dried hen-dung with 1,000 lbs. of air-dried wheat and rye, and also with bran, malt-combs, etc.

_Phosphoric _Nitrogen._ _Potash._ Acid._ Wheat 20.8 5.3 7.9 Wheat Bran 22.4 14.3 27.3 Rye 17.6 5.6 8.4 Rye Bran 23.2 19.3 34.3 Buckwheat 14.4 2.7 5.7 Buckwheat Bran 27.2 11.2 12.5 Malt-roots 36.8 20.6 18.0 Air-dry Hen-dung. 32.6 17.0 30.8

"That table," said the Doctor, "is well worth studying. You see, that when wheat is put through the process of milling, the miller takes out as much of the starch and gluten as he wants, and leaves you a product (bran), richer in phosphoric acid, potash, and nitrogen, than you gave him."

"And the same is true," continued the Doctor, "of the hen. You gave her 2,000 grains of wheat, containing 41.6 grains of nitrogen. She puts this through the mill, together with some ashes, and bones, that she picks up, and she takes out all the starch and fat, and nitrogen, and phosphate of lime, that she needs to sustain life, and to produce flesh, bones, feathers, and eggs, and leaves you 1,000 grains of manure containing 32.6 grains of nitrogen, 17.0 grains of potash, and 30.8 grains of phosphoric acid. I do not say," continued the Doctor, "that it takes exactly 2,000 grains of wheat to make 1,000 grains of dry manure.

I merely give these figures to enable the Deacon to understand why 1,000 lbs. of hen-dung is worth more for manure than 1,000 lbs. of wheat."

"I must admit," said the Deacon, "that I always have been troubled to understand why wheat-bran was worth more for manure than the wheat itself, I see now--it is because there is less of it. It is for the same reason that boiled cider is richer than the cider from which it is made.

The cider has lost water, and the bran has lost starch. What is left is richer in nitrogen, and potash, and phosphoric acid. And so it is with manure. The animals take out of the food the starch and fat, and leave the manure richer in nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash."

"Exactly," said I, "Mr. Lawes found by actual experiment, that if you feed 500 lbs. of barley-meal to a pig, containing 420 lbs. of _dry substance_, you get only 70 lbs. of dry substance in the manure. Of the 420 lbs. of dry substance, 276.2 lbs. are used to support respiration, etc.; 73.8 lbs. are found in the increase of the pig, and 70 lbs. in the manure."

The food contains 52 lbs. of nitrogenous matter; the increase of pig contains 7 lbs., and consequently, if there is no loss, the manure should contain 45 lbs. of nitrogenous substance = to 7.14 lbs. of nitrogen.

"In other words," said the Doctor, "the 70 lbs. of _dry_ liquid and solid pig-manure contains 7.14 lbs. of nitrogen, or 100 lbs. would contain 10.2 lbs. of nitrogen, which is more nitrogen than we now get in the very best samples of Peruvian guano."

"And thus it will be seen," said I, "that though corn-fed pigs, leaving out the bedding and water, produce a very small quant.i.ty of manure, it is exceedingly rich."

The table from which these facts were obtained, will be found in the Appendix--pages 342-3.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF MANURE.

COW-MANURE, AND HOW TO USE IT.

"It will do more good if fermented," said a German farmer in the neighborhood, who is noted for raising good crops of cabbage, "but I like hog-manure better than cow-dung. The right way is to mix the hog-manure, cow-dung, and horse-manure together."

"No doubt about that," said I, "but when you have a good many cows, and few other animals, how would you manage the manure?"

"I would gather leaves and swamp-muck, and use them for bedding the cows and pigs. Leaves make splendid bedding, and they make rich manure, and the cow-dung and leaves, when made into a pile, will ferment readily, and make grand manure for--anything. I only wish I had all I could use."

There is no question but what cow-manure is better if fermented, but it is not always convenient to pile it during the winter in such a way that it will not freeze. And in this case it may be the better plan to draw it out on to the land, as opportunity offers.

"I have heard," said Charley, "that pig-manure was not good for cabbage, it produces 'fingers and toes,' or club-foot."

Possibly such is the case when there is a predisposition to the disease, but our German friend says he has never found any ill-effects from its use.

"Cows," said the Doctor, "when giving a large quant.i.ty of milk, make rather poor manure. The manure loses what the milk takes from the food."

"We have shown what that loss is," said I. "It amounts to less than I think is generally supposed. And in the winter, when the cows are dry, the manure would be as rich as from oxen, provided both were fed alike.

See Appendix, page 342. It will there be seen that oxen take out only 4.1 lbs. of nitrogen from 100 lbs. of nitrogen consumed in the food. In other words, provided there is no loss, we should get in the liquid and solid excrements of the ox and dry cow 95.9 per cent of the nitrogen furnished in the food, and a still higher per cent of the mineral matter."

SHEEP-MANURE.