No better use can be made of rainy days in summer or winter than in caring for manure; turning the piles, making compact stacks, adding needed moisture and preservatives, shaking out all lumps and putting undecayed portions into the centre of the heap.
Ton after ton of the best kind of fertilizer can be accumulated on every farm in this manner, including not only what is now lost through careless handling, but also a large amount of good material that is now entirely overlooked on many farms. All rubbish, all litter, all dirt, has a fertilizing value. If certain waste products must go to the bonfire, the ashes can at least be saved and used during the next growing season. It is sometimes better to burn weeds and certain tough vines than to attempt to compost them; but the ashes should not be wasted. It is the saving of many little things that counts in the yearly total. Labor is money, but it is better to invest labor at home than to go to the fertilizer-maker for supplies and pay out cash.
The Fertilizer Man.—The fertilizer man will always be with us, because he has a true place in the economy of the farm and garden. We must go to him for the preservatives already mentioned—for gypsum, for kainit and for acid phosphate; and also for complete fertilizers. These articles are all comparatively cheap. The fertilizer man can make but modest profits upon them. The purchase of high-grade goods from well-known and honest makers is to be commended, for it is strictly economical.
The thing to be avoided is the blind buying of fertilizers from unknown or irresponsible makers or agents. This is worse than buying a cat in a bag, and results in great waste of good money.
Wood Ashes.—Wood ashes is rich in potash, and is particularly valuable with potatoes, fruits of all kinds, etc. But it is a great error to mix wood ashes with fresh manure of any kind, especially with hen manure, as the escape of ammonia is hastened and much value is lost.
Natural and Artificial Manures.—Where the home supply of manure is insufficient for a piece of ground, necessitating the addition of artificial manure, it is universally conceded to be good practice to stretch the natural product over the whole tract and then to go over the whole tract with an artificial fertilizer.
Irrigation. [A]—In connection with a review of the home sources of manure the item of irrigation must not be overlooked, for it is thoroughly well established that water is a carrier of appreciable amounts of fertilizing materials. In European countries large areas of pasture and mowing lands are fertilized by water alone, the irrigation being regarded as of great value on this account, aside from the fact that it supplies moisture to the grass roots. Most streams in the United States contain more or less sewage, and in respect to irrigation are valuable on that account.
[A] The reader is referred to our new book on this subject. It is entitled, "Irrigation by Cheap Modern Methods." See illustration next page, also pages [83] and [125].—Johnson & Stokes.
Waste Products.—Many waste or by-products, available for use as fertilizers, come from time to time within the reach of the farmer or gardener, especially to those living near towns or railroads.
The average market house, be it said with regret, is none too clean, and refuse in considerable amounts could be had there for the trouble of sweeping. Cattle cars often contain several inches of valuable droppings, to be had for next to nothing. Street-scrapings are worth the trouble of hauling, if the distance is short. The manure lost on the highways is very great in amount, and may be worth the cost of collection. There will some day be a machine for gathering this manure from the roads by horse-power, as it would amply repay the expense of driving such a machine along every much-used highway.