In many American barnyards much of the manure is lost, partly by leaching and partly by escape of ammonia. It is estimated that as much as a third of the natural manure produced in this country is practically thrown away.
The Cornell Station has announced that a pile of horse manure exposed to the weather will lose half of its value in six months. The Kansas Station reaches nearly the same conclusion about farmyard manure.
Manure stored under cover may lose from 14 to 30 per cent. of its nitrogen (ammonia); and as this element is the most expensive of all to buy, it is evident that the loss is a very serious one, and one that should be avoided if possible.
General Principles of Storage.—Having pointed out the fact that on many farms there is a loss of a large amount of excellent manure, it is now in order to name a remedy. The compass of this book is so limited that it is necessary to go straight to the point, omitting a detailed account of the chemical processes involved.
The best-known method of keeping all the manure produced by farm animals is storage under a closed shed, supplemented with chemical preservatives. The shed need not cover the barnyard, but merely the manure pile. The preservatives cost little money, and eventually go to the soil in the form of excellent fertilizers. Not a cent paid for them need be lost.
The manure shed should be large enough to work in with comfort; large enough to permit the heap or heaps of manure to be turned, worked over and shifted from place to place. A clay or earth floor will answer every purpose, and the shed may be of the cheapest character, provided it will turn the rain. The floor of the manure shed should slope inward from all directions, and the drainage around the shed should be outward, so that no rain-water or snow-water can enter.
In theory, it may be best to put fresh manure on the land as quickly as possible. All leaching is then received by the soil, and little is lost, except through the air.
In practice, this plan is not always a good one. It costs more to make ten trips to the field than one trip, and valuable time is wasted. It is quite out of the question to haul out manure every day or even every week. Besides, it is necessary in actual practice, especially in gardening or truck farming, to cover a whole piece of ground at one time, so that it may be plowed and seeded for the coming crop. The ground is usually available only a short time before this preparation, having, perhaps, been occupied by something else. It is desirable, moreover, that the manure when applied shall be ready for immediate service as plant food, which is not the case with the raw product. Fresh manure is but sparingly digestible by plant roots. Quicker cash results will be secured by applying prepared manure to the soil than by applying the product fresh from the stable.
The manure shed has already been mentioned. A few dollars will build it. Sometimes a half barrel is sunken in the centre of the manure shed, and the drainage from the manure heaps collected there, and returned to the tops of the heaps. It is occasionally necessary to add water, when turning manure, to secure the desired degree of dampness and a gentle fermentation. This fermentation will cause the litter to fall to pieces, and will convert it into quickly-available plant food.
No one who has never tried it will expect the generous heaps which will follow systematic and persevering efforts to accumulate and stack up the available manure materials on any farm.