Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1869 — Liquid Manure. [ARTICLE]

Liquid Manure.

Wm. T. Rand gives an interesting ac count of experiments with liquid manure in a recently published Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture. He leached soap-suds and house-slops of every kind through fresh barn-yard manure, and ap plied the liquid thus obtained to the soil in his hot-house, and it increased the temperature and improved the growth of his flowers and plants to such a degree, that it seemed the work of magic. By adding one bushel of fresh woodashes to ten of stable manure, and leaching soap suds, etc., through it, he foundthe alkai addition had the effect of matur ing the woody parts of plants, and diminishing the vine growing plants. Leach ing soap-suds, etc, through a peck of fresh hen manure, and five bushels Of fresh cow droppings produces a liquid which had a very beneficial effect upon vine growing plants, and the contrary es ect on fruit growing ones. During his experiments in order to obtain a valuable liquid manure for universal use, Mr. Rand tilled his hopper with a variety Of decaying animal and vegeta ble matter, such as rotten wood, decayed weeds, refuse meats, old bones, lime, ashes, old leather, slops, etc., in fact every thing of a perishable nature on the farm. A covering of lime, ashes and sand, kept fermentation beneath the surface of the mass. In the liquid which oozed through, a bag of charcoal was placed, to deodorize it In order to test the value of this liquid, he made three beds for onion sets. One of these was made of good soil, into which rotten compost, and well decomposed barn yard manure was worked In another phosphates and patent fertilizers were incorporated with the soil. In the third bed the soil was spaded up and saturated with the liquid manure. The result was .decidedly in favor of the latter, for the soil prepared with it was so productive that the onions matured and were eaten in the spring, before the re mainder wdre large enough for use. A similar result attended the application of the liquid to parsnips, beets and cabbages Liquid manure is much more beneficial m a dry season than in a moist one; its advantage over solid manure being very striking during the former season and very slight during the latter.