Talks on Manures Part 58

Letter from Edward Jessop, York, Pa.

YORK, PA., March 16, 1876.

_Joseph Harris, Esq., Moreton Farm, Rochester, N.Y.:_

DEAR SIR--Your favor of the 22d of last month came safely to hand, and I am truly obliged to you for the reply to my question.--You ask, can I help you with facts or suggestions, on the subject of manure? I fear not much; but it may be useful to you to know what others need to know.

I will look forward to the advent of "Talks on Manures" with much interest, hoping to get new light on a subject second to none in importance to the farmer.

I have done a little at composting for some years, and am now having a pile of about forty cords, made up of stable-manure and earth taken from the wash of higher lands, turned and fined. The labor of digging and hauling the earth, composting in thin layers with manure, turning, and fining, is so great, I doubt whether it pays for most farm crops--this to be used for mangel-wurzel and market-garden.

The usual plan in this county is to keep the stable-manure made during winter, and the acc.u.mulation of the summer in the barn-yard, where it is soaked by rain, and trampled fine by cattle, and in August and September is hauled upon ground to be seeded with wheat and gra.s.s-seeds. I do not think there is much piling and turning done.

My own conclusions, not based on accurate experiments, however, are, that the best manure I have ever applied was prepared in a covered pit on which cattle were allowed to run, and so kept well tramped--some drainage into a well, secured by pouring water upon it, when necessary, and the drainage pumped and distributed over the surface, at short intervals, particularly the parts not well tramped, and allowed to remain until it became a h.o.m.ogeneous ma.s.s, which it will do without having undergone so active a fermentation as to have thrown off a considerable amount of gas.

The next best, composting it with earth, as above described, piled about five or six feet high, turned as often as convenient, and kept moist enough to secure fermentation.

Or, to throw all the manure as made into a covered pit, until it is thoroughly mixed and made fine, by allowing hogs to run upon it and root at will; and when prepared for even spreading, apply it as a top-dressing on gra.s.s-land--at any convenient time.

As to how many loads of fresh manure it takes to make one of well-rotted manure, it may be answered approximately, _three to one_, but that would depend a good deal on the manner of doing it, and the amount of rough material in it. If well trodden by cattle under cover, and sufficient drainage poured over it, to prevent any violent fermentation, the loss of weight, I think, would not be very great, nor the bulk lessened over one-half.

Many years ago an old and successful farmer said to me, "if you want to get the full benefit of manure, spread it as a top-dressing on some _growing crop_," and all my experience and observation since tend to confirm the correctness of his advice.

While on this subject, allow me to protest against the practice of naming the quant.i.ty of manure applied to a given s.p.a.ce, as so many _loads_, as altogether too indefinite. The bushel or cord is a definite quant.i.ty, which all can understand.

The average price of good livery stable horse-manure at this place has been for several years four dollars a cord.

With two and a half miles to haul, I am trying whether keeping a flock of 50 breeding ewes, and feeding liberally with wheat bran, in addition to hay and pasture, will not produce the needed manure more cheaply.

Respectfully yours,

EDWARD JESSOP.

_P.S._--You ask for the average weight of a cord of manure, such as we pay four dollars for.

I had a cord of horse-stable manure from a livery stable in York which had been all the time under cover, with several pigs running upon it, and was moist, without any excess of wet, loaded into a wagon-box holding an entire cord, or 128 cubic feet, tramped by the wagoner three times while loading.

The wagon was weighed at our hay-scales before loading, and then the wagon and load together, with a net result for the manure of 4,400 lbs.

I considered this manure rather better than the average. I had another load, from a different place, which weighed over 5,000 lbs., but on examination it was found to contain a good deal of coal ashes. We never _buy_ by the ton. Harrison Bros. & Co., Manufacturing Chemists, Philadelphia, rate barnyard-manure as worth $5.77 per ton, and say that would be about $7.21 per cord, which would be less than 1 tons to the cord. If thrown in loosely, and it happened to be _very dry_, that might be possible.

Waring, in his "Handy Book of Husbandry," page 201, says, he caused a cord of well-trodden livery stable manure containing the usual proportion of straw, to be carefully weighed, and that the cord weighed 7,080 lbs.

The load I had weighed, weighing 4,400 lbs., was considered by the wagoner and by myself as a fair sample of good manure. In view of these wide differences, further trials would be desirable. Dana, in his "Muck Manual," says a cord of green cow-dung, pure, as dropped, weighs 9,289 lbs.

Farmers here seldom draw manure with less than three, more generally with four horses or mules; loading is done by the purchaser. From the barn-yard, put on loose boards, from 40 to 60 bushels are about an average load.

In hauling from town to a distance of three to five miles, farmers generally make two loads of a cord each, a day's work. From the barn-yard, a very variable number, per day. In my own case, two men with three horses have been hauling six and seven loads of sixty bushels, fine compost, a distance of from one-half to three-fourths of a mile, up a long and rather steep hill, and spreading from the wagon, as hauled, upon gra.s.s-sod.

Our larger farmers often have one driver and his team, two wagons, one loading, while the other is drawn to the field; the driver slips off one of the side-boards, and with his dung-hook draws off piles at nearly equal distances, to be spread as convenient.

EDWARD JESSOP.

Letter from Dr. E. L. Sturtevant, South Framingham, Ma.s.s.

SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, Ma.s.s., April 2, 1876.

FRIEND HARRIS--Manure about Boston is sold in various ways. First, according to the number of animals kept; price varying so much, that I do not venture to name the figures. By the cord, to be trodden over while loading; never by weight, so far as I can learn--price from 0 to $12.00 per cord, according to season, and various accidental circ.u.mstances. During the past winter, manure has been given away in Boston. Handling, hauling to the railroad, and freight costing $4 per cord for carrying 30 miles out. Market-gardeners usually haul manure as a return freight on their journeys to and from market. About South Framingham, price stiff at $8 a cord in the cellar, and this may be considered the ruling suburban price. Very friendly yours,

E. LEWIS STURTEVANT.

Letter from M. C. Weld.

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 1876.

MY DEAR HARRIS--I don't know what I can write about manures, that would be of use. I have strong faith in humus, in ashes, leached and unleached, in lime, gas-lime, plaster, bones, ammonia ready formed, nitrates ready formed, not much in meat and blood, unless they are _cheap_. Nevertheless, they often are cheap, and produce splendid effects. I believe in sulphuric acid, with organic nitrogenous manures; the composting of meat, blood, hair, etc., with peat and muck, and wetting it down with dilute sulphuric acid. I believe in green-manuring, heartily, and in tillage, tillage, tillage. Little faith in superphosphates and compounded manures, at selling prices. Habirshaw's guano is good enough. So much for my creed. Truly yours,

M. C. WELD.

Letter from Peter Henderson.

NEW YORK, Oct. 26, 1876.

_Mr. Joseph Harris_:

DEAR SIR--If you will refer to my work "Gardening for Profit," New Edition, page 34, you will get about all the information I possess on Manures, except that I do not say anything about price. In a general way it might be safe to advise that whenever _a ton_ (it is always best to speak of manures by weight) of either cow, horse, hog, or other stable-manure can be laid on the ground for $3, it is cheaper than commercial fertilizers of any kind at their usual market rates. This $3 per ton, I think, would be about the average cost in New York, Boston, or Philadelphia. We never haul it on the ground until we are ready to plow it in. If it has to be taken from the hog or cattle yards, we draw it out into large heaps, convenient to where it is to be put on the land, turning it, to keep it from burning or "fire-fanging," if necessary. None of our farmers or market-gardeners here keep it under cover. The expense of such covering and the greater difficulties in getting at it, for the immense quant.i.ties we use, would be greater than the benefits to be derived from keeping it under cover--benefits, in fact, which, I think, may be greatly overrated. Very truly yours,

PETER HENDERSON.

Letter from J. M. B. Anderson, Ed. "Canada Farmer," Toronto.

"CANADA FARMER" OFFICE, TORONTO, March 29, 1876.

_J. Harris, Esq._:

DEAR SIR--Yours of the 25th inst. is to hand, and I shall be most happy to render you any a.s.sistance in my power. The work you undertake is in able hands, and I have every confidence that, when completed, it will form an invaluable acquisition to the agricultural literature of the day.

Manure in this city is usually sold by the two-horse load--about 1 tons--at the rate of $1 per load, or 66 cents per ton. The load contains just about a cord of manure, consequently a cord will weigh about 1 tons.

With reference to the general management of manure in Canada, I may say that the system followed differs in no material respect from that of New York and the other Eastern States. It is usually kept over winter in the open barn yard (rarely under cover, I am sorry to say), laid out on the land about the time of disappearance of last snow, and plowed in. In some cases it is not carted out until the land is ready for immediate plowing. With some of our more advanced farmers, the system has lately been adopted of keeping manure under cover and sprinkling it thoroughly at intervals with plaster and other substances. Tanks are also becoming more common than formerly, for the preservation of liquid manure, which is usually applied by means of large, perforated hogs-heads, after the manner of street-watering.

You ask, how the manure is managed at Bow Park, Brantford. That made during fall and winter is carefully kept in as small bulk as possible, to prevent exposure to the weather. In February and March it is drawn out and put in heaps 8 feet square, and well packed, to prevent the escape of ammonia. In spring, as soon as practicable, it is spread, and plowed under immediately. Manure made in spring and summer is spread on the field at once, and plowed under with a good, deep furrow.

Very truly yours, J. M. B. ANDERSON, Ed. _Canada Farmer_.