Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1879 — How to Save and Keep Manure. [ARTICLE]

How to Save and Keep Manure.

There is no, question more frequently or £/erioußly considered by the farmer than how he shall get, keep and spend an adequate supply of manure, nor is there anything aW>t the farm whitph is, of greater importance to its successful management than the manure heap. .Thfite are few farmers now left Who pretend tb ignore this feed for the land, and few localities, even in the newer Western States, where manure now is thought to. be a nuisanoe. We have gradually come to the inevitable final end Of our “ virgin farms, 1 ’ and have now either to save what is left of their wonderful natural fertility or to restore them slowly and laboriously to a.profitable condition. We have reached the end of our tether, and are obliged to confess that we have trespassed over the line which'bounds the' territory of the locust; or have-improved the face of the country so mnch that, the protecting being removed, the water supply M becoming and springs, brooks and rivers ' nb lbnger flow As they did heretofore. 1 To some extent the tide of emigrAtion, which has flowed Westward so many years, is now eddying.or pyen ebbing, andythe cheap, worn lands of the East, arq .finding purchasers who undertake to bring them back to their former cbtiftition. At the same tiirfe' Eastern farmers are discovering more and more certainly that they must increase their crops and make one acre produce as much as two have heretofore done. The only _way in which either of’these classes cart succefid fs by /keeping sufficient stock to manure their farms liberally;'to feed these* - animals so skillfully and wall, that they, ah all pay, for their feed wjth a profit, and in aadi-‘ tion leave a supply of rich manure, witn which the soil can be kepC hr a prodoc-’ dive-state, and to use and saVfe the «la-‘ nure with such care that no particle Of it bqlqst. rlt is not every fanper who can procure all the , manure he needs; nofw do; and this, although itrriay seem a qnesttoii-seebndavy to that bf getting manure, isxeaUyA<i>rimao:fppprtanQe, for by using. \yfyM*. Oge bw to better purpose ne opens a way to increase his supply. We have found this to be the case in Our own experience, and by strict attention to saving and preserving every particle of manure in its best condition we have succeeded in so enlarging our supply of fodder that the number of stock that cotkld be fed

was largely increased each year, and very Boon it was necessary to go out and buv animals to consume the surplus. To bring a farm into improved condition there is ho cheaper or more effective way than this. The ordinary management of manure, m open barnyards where it is washed by rains, dried oy the son's scorching heat and wasted by-ovary wind that blows, is the worst that,is possible. In this way half or more of the .value of the manure is lost. By figuring *up what it would cost tb purchase a quantity of manure equal to what is thus lost, the costliness of. this common method would be discovered, and the question how much could be. afforded to take care of the manure would be settled. When properly littered one cow or ox would make a ton of manure every month, if the liquid as well as the solid portion is saved. Ten; head ,waul4 Abus. make 120, tons, op -sixty two-horse wagon. loads in a year. T A pair of horses wm make as much manure akbnC'ibhw;'or twelve tritfd in ! the year. A'hnhdrriT sheep, 4f yuyddd «v» ery night and well littered,' will make 100 tons .of manure in and sep P ! g»-rtdl#/ »Pin month if Supplied with sufficient coarse material! * Tn 6 stock of a 100-aci'e farih,’ which should consist of at * least ten cows; ten head of steers,- heifers and calves; a pair of horses, IQO sheep and ten pigs, would then make in the aggro-: gate 315 tons of manure every year, or sufficient to give twelve tons per acre every fourth year'.lf this were well cared itrt it would lie, in effect, equal to double the quantity of ordinary manure; and if a plenty of swamp muck could he procured, at least six hundred tons of the'best man fife could he made a ltWacfe hum.- If this weht the rifle instead of a rare exception, or only a possibility, what a change would, appear upoß-the face ojLlhp country *pd what an addition,would.bejoiade t 6 the wealth of the Nation '.—American Agriculture. iiT ' * 1 ; * 1 **■