GARDENING NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 25 January 1917, Page 51

GARDENING NOTES

(By Mr. J. Joyce, Landscape Gardener, Christchurch.)

THE VALUE ‘OF MANURES (Continued). " Contents and Value of a Ton of Manure. One ton of horse, pig, and cow manure two weeks old, : contains, in addition to: 1.3231 b of water, 5151 b of insoluble organic matter and other unimportant ingredients ; ammonia, 15Mb; soluble phosphoric acid, 3Jlb ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 3£lb p potash, 'l3 jib, making 361 bof valuable fertilising materials. These ingredients would cost, if bought in the form of commercial fertilising materials, between five and seven dollars, from which it is easy to calculate the value ,of a ton of manure. . Methods of Storing Manure.— your barn is on a hillside, have a tight manure cellar immediately under the stalls. Provide facilities for allowing the urine of the animals to run through the floor upon the heap underneath. A trap-door is easily constructed through which the manure and litter is handily shovelled. The floor of the cellar should be tight. If the soil is clay no floor is needed. Muck, road dust, or clay should be added. This manure should be removed daily to the compost heap, as the gasses generate poison, which the animals above breathe. (Of course this will mean where a number of animals are congregated daily, such, for instance, where cattle are housed all the winter, as they usually are in America and Canada.) In such circumstances the above method of preserving manure is very appropriate. Manure Shed. —If to construct a cellar is not practicable, a tight shed should be built outside the stable into which the droppings of the animals can be thrown. It will pay to place the shed floor two or three feet lower than the stable floor, and provide means for draining the urine into it. - This may be done by means of sloping stall floors. Value of Excrement of Animals. —The quality of manure depends on the food eaten. If , a bushel of corn be fed to a horse, cow, sheep, or hog, of full age, the full equivalent of nitrogen and earthy parts of the corn will be found in the droppings of either animal. The difference of fertilising power, therefore, is mainly attributable to the difference in food consumed. The farm produce fed to animals possesses two cash values : It makes flesh, wool, butter, eggs, etc., which sell for so much per pound or dozen : the apparently useless or rejected portion of every variety of food is worth so many dollars for fertilising purposes. A dollar is a dollar whether obtained from the sale of butter or the savings of manure, and one is equal in value to the other. Table showing the value of one ton of decomposed vegetables used as manures because of the inorganic matter they return to the soil;

Seaweed is the best vegetable fertilise!', with' potato and turnip tops to follow. The different straws, too, are excellent and are-far too valuable to be allowed to bleach in the sun and rain or to be left in unused piles in the field or barn yard. Straw heaps should be spread, out so that the rains may have a chance of fermentation, and animals should be allowed to run over it and trample it down; it will cause decomposition and enrich the manure.

\Moisture ,is necessary. Every: knows it takes years for a large straw ■ stack rot through* while if it is scattered about a season or two only is ; necessary. Always positively refrain from burning stacks, straw leaves, or vegetable matter (unless seed of weeds), as all nitrogen is lost, which is money lost. Never burn corn stacks or straw piles, for it is more profitable; to scatter the stack and plough it under. It should be a standing rule in every farm that whatever' can be > converted into manure should be religiously saved, for it is money gained. ;> ; : d ' ■ 'd■Liquid Manures. the . fertilising qualities of manures must be reduced to liquids before they can' be absorbed by the growing plants. All manures can be reduced to fluid extracts, easily prepared at small expense and ready for instant application to the > farmers (or gardeners’) Plants can thus readily accept the substance brought to their' many . mouths. If liquid manures are to be applied on a - 'large scale, a - cheap and a simple apparatus for reducing manures to a liquid state is by having a large vat or ! tank. Fill with two bushels of new stable manure, half a bushel of fowl droppings, one peck of lime, one peck . of sand, half a bushel of wood ashes. Then pour water over the whole, hot or cold slops, soapsuds, and other liquid refuse from the household. In a week stir ' the compost, and run the liquid through again. After it is run out the contents may be used as a fertiliser “ or mixed with other composts, and "will, prove equal to ; any. The above directions are intended only to show the proper preparations of the different articles used, the quantity, of course, depending, entirely on the amount of liquid required. How to Save Liquid Manure.—The Urine of all animals is very much alike in chemical constituents. When rotted with water it contains a large quantity of nitrogen and many valuable salts, which are dissolved S and ready for plants to absorb at once. The uria j| it contains constitutes • its chief value. When urine begins to ferment the uria changes into carbonate ? of ammonia and escapes rapidly into the air unless retained. On this account a tank should be provided -to receive it, having a capacity of ten or twelve gallons for every adult animal in the stalls, on, the supposition that it will be emptied once a week. The tank must be kept covered to prevent the ammonia from escaping.

Barley straw ... 70 to 3601b 3601b Bean straw ... 100 to 1301b 1301b Hay ... 100 to 2001b 2001b Malt dust 1801b Oat straw ... 100 to 1801b 1801b Pea straw ... 100 to 1101b 1101b Potato tops (dry) 4001b Rye straw ... 50 to 1001b 1001b Rape seed-cake 1201b Turnip tops (dry) 3701b Wheat straw ... 70 to 3601b 3601b