Talks on Manures Part 49

To convert common manure into rich manure, therefore, we must add nitrogen and phosphoric acid. In other words, we must use Peruvian guano, or nitrate of soda and superphosphate, or bone-dust, or some other substance that will furnish available nitrogen and phosphoric acid.

Or it may well be, where stable-manure can be bought for $1.00 per two-horse load, that it will be cheaper to use it in larger quant.i.ty rather than to try to make it rich. In this case, however, we must endeavor to follow the cabbage by some crop that has the power of taking up the large quant.i.ty of nitrogen and other plant-food that will be left in the soil.

The cabbage needs a large supply of nitrogen in the soil, but removes comparatively little of it. We see that when 75 tons of manure is used, a crop of 50 tons of cabbage takes out of the soil less than 30 per cent of the nitrogen. And yet, if you plant cabbage on this land, the next year, without manure, you would get a small crop.

"It cannot be for want of nitrogen," said the Deacon.

"Yes it can," said I. "The cabbage, especially the early kinds, must have in the soil a much larger quant.i.ty of available nitrogen than the plants can use."

I do not mean by this that a large crop of cabbage could be raised, year after year, if furnished only with a large supply of available nitrogen.

In such a case, the soil would soon lack the necessary inorganic ingredients. But, what I mean, is this: Where land has been heavily manured for some years, we could often raise a good crop of cabbage by a liberal dressing of available nitrogen, and still more frequently, if nitrogen and phosphoric acid were both used.

You may use what would be considered an excessive quant.i.ty of ordinary stable-manure, and grow a large crop of cabbage; but still, if you plant cabbage the next year, without manure of any kind, you will get a small crop; but dress it with a manure containing the necessary amount of nitrogen, and you will, so far as the supply of plant-food is concerned, be likely to get a good crop.

In such circ.u.mstances, I think an application of 800 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre, costing, say $32, would be likely to afford a very handsome profit.

For lettuce, in addition to well prepared rich land, I should sow 3 lbs. of superphosphate to each square rod, scattered in the rows before drilling in the seed. It will favor the formation of fibrous roots and stimulate the growth of the young plants.

In raising onions from seed, we require an abundance of rich, well-rotted manure, clean land, and early sowing.

Onions are often raised year after year on the same land. That this entails a great waste of manure, is highly probable, but it is not an easy matter to get ordinary farm-land properly prepared for onions. It needs to be clean and free from stones and rubbish of all kinds, and when once it is in good condition, it is thought better to continue it in onions, even though it may entail more or less loss of fertility.

"What do you mean," asked the Deacon, "by loss of manure?"

"Simply this," said I. "We use a far greater amount of plant-food in the shape of manure than is removed by the crop of onions. And yet, notwithstanding this fact, it is found, as a matter of experience, that it is absolutely necessary, if we would raise a large and profitable crop, to manure it every year."

A few experiments would throw much light on this matter. I should expect, when land had been heavily dressed every year for a few years, with stable-manure, and annually sown to onions, that 800 lbs. of sulphate of ammonia, or of nitrate of soda, or 1,200 lbs. of Peruvian guano would give as good a crop as 25 or 30 tons of manure. Or perhaps a better plan would be to apply 10 or 15 loads of manure, and 600 lbs. of guano, or 400 lbs. sulphate of ammonia.

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

MANURES FOR GARDENS AND ORCHARDS.

MANURE FOR MARKET-GARDENS.

The chief dependence of the market gardener must be on the stable-manure which he can obtain from the city or village. The chief defect of this manure is that it is not rich enough in available nitrogen. The active nitrogen exists princ.i.p.ally in the urine, and this in our city stables is largely lost. A ton of fresh, unmixed horse-dung contains about 9 lbs. of nitrogen. A ton of horse-urine, 31 lbs. But this does not tell the whole story. The nitrogen in the dung is contained in the crude, undigested portions of the food. It is to a large extent insoluble and unavailable, while the nitrogen in the urine is soluble and active.

The market-gardener, of course, has to take such manure as he can get, and the only points to be considered are (1), whether he had better continue to use an excessive quant.i.ty of the manure, or (2), to buy substances rich in available nitrogen, and either mix them with the manure, or apply them separately to the soil, or (3), whether he can use this horse-manure as bedding for pigs to be fed on rich nitrogenous food.

The latter plan I adopt on my own farm, and in this way I get a very rich and active manure. I get available nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, at far cheaper rates than they can be purchased in the best commercial fertilizers.

Pigs void a large amount of urine, and as pigs are ordinarily kept, much of this liquid is lost for want of sufficient bedding to absorb it. With the market-gardener or nurseryman, who draws large quant.i.ties of horse-manure from the city, this need not be the case. The necessary buildings can be constructed at little cost, and the horse-manure can be used freely. The pigs should be fed on food rich in nitrogen, such as bran, malt-combs, brewers' grains, the refuse animal matter from the slaughter-houses or butchers' stores, fish sc.r.a.p, pea or lentil-meal, palm-nut cake, or such food as will furnish the most nitrogenous food, other things being equal, at the cheapest rate.

The market-gardener not only requires large quant.i.ties of rich manure, but he wants them to act quickly. The nurseryman who sets out a block of trees which will occupy the ground for three, four, or five years, may want a "lasting manure," but such is not the case with the gardener who grows crops which he takes off the land in a few months. As long as he continues to use horse or cow-manure freely, he need not trouble himself to get a slow or lasting manure. His great aim should be to make the manure as active and available as possible. And this is especially the case if he occupies clayey or loamy land. On sandy land the manure will decompose more rapidly and act quicker.

"There are many facts," said the Doctor, "that show that an artificial application of water is equivalent to an application of manure. It has been shown that market-gardeners find it necessary to apply a much larger amount of plant-food to the soil than the crops can take up. This they have to do year after year. And it may well be that, when a supply of water can be had at slight cost, it will be cheaper to irrigate the land, or water the plants, rather than to furnish such an excess of manure, as is now found necessary. Even with ordinary farm-crops, we know that they feel the effects of drouth far less on rich land than on poor land. In other words, a liberal supply of plant-food enables the crops to flourish with less water; and, on the other hand, a greater supply of water will enable the crops to flourish with a less supply of plant-food. The market-gardeners should look into this question of irrigation."

MANURES FOR SEED-GROWING FARMS.

In growing garden and vegetable seeds, much labor is necessarily employed per acre, and consequently it is of great importance to produce a good yield. The best and cleanest land is necessary to start with, and then manures must be appropriately and freely used.

"But not too freely," said the Doctor, "for I am told it is quite possible to have land too rich for seed-growing."

It is not often that the land is too rich. Still, it may well be that for some crops too much stable-manure is used. But in nine cases out of ten, when such manure gives too much growth and too little or too poor seed, the trouble is in the quality of the manure. It contains too much carbonaceous matter. In other words, it is so poor in nitrogen and phosphoric acid, that an excessive quant.i.ty has to be used.

The remedy consists in making richer manures and using a less quant.i.ty, or use half the quant.i.ty of stable-manure, and apply the rectified or prepared Peruvian guano, at the rate of 300 lbs. or 400 lbs. per acre, or say 200 lbs. superphosphate and 200 lbs. nitrate of soda per acre.

Where it is very important to have the seeds ripen early, a liberal dressing, say 400 lbs. per acre, of superphosphate of lime, will be likely to prove beneficial.

MANURE FOR PRIVATE GARDENS.

I once had a small garden in the city, and having no manure, I depended entirely on thorough cultivation and artificial fertilizers, such as superphosphate and sulphate of ammonia. It was cultivated not for profit, but for pleasure, but I never saw a more productive piece of land. I had in almost every case two crops a year on the same land, and on some plots three crops. No manure was used, except the superphosphate and sulphate of ammonia, and coal and wood ashes from the house.

About 5 lbs. of sulphate of ammonia was sown broadcast to the square rod, or worked into the soil very thoroughly in the rows where the seed was to be sown. Superphosphate was applied at the same rate, but instead of sowing it broadcast, I aimed to get it as near the seed or the roots of plants as possible.

Half a teaspoonful of the mixture, consisting of equal parts of superphosphate and sulphate of ammonia, stirred into a large three gallon can of water, and sprinkled on to a bed of verbenas, seemed to have a remarkable effect on the size and brilliancy of the flowers.

Even to this day, although I have a good supply of rich barnyard-manure, I do not like to be without some good artificial manure for the garden.

MANURE FOR HOT-BEDS.

The best manure for hot-beds is horse or sheep-dung that has been used as bedding for pigs.

When fresh stable-manure is used, great pains should be taken to save all the urine. In other words, you want the horse-dung thoroughly saturated with urine.

The heat is produced princ.i.p.ally from the carbon in the manure and straw, but you need active nitrogenous matter to start the fire. And the richer the manure is in nitrogenous matter, and the more thoroughly this is distributed through the manure, the more readily will it ferment.

There is also another advantage in having rich manure, or manure well saturated with urine. You can make the heap more compact. Poor manure has to be made in a loose heap, or it will not ferment; but such manure as we are talking about can be trodden down quite firm, and still ferment rapid enough to give out the necessary heat, and this compact heap will continue to ferment longer and give out a steadier heat, than the loose heap of poor manure.

MANURE FOR NURSERYMEN.

Our successful nurserymen purchase large quant.i.ties of stable and other manures from the cities, drawing it as fast as it is made, and putting it in piles until wanted. They usually turn the piles once or twice, and often three times. This favors fermentation, greatly reducing it in bulk, and rendering the manure much more soluble and active. It also makes the manure in the heap more uniform in quality.

Messrs. Ellw.a.n.ger & Barry tell me that they often ferment the manure that they draw from the stables in the city, and make it so fine and rich, that they get but one load of rotted manure from three loads as drawn from the stables. For some crops, they use at least 20 loads of this rotted manure per acre, and they estimate that each load of this rotted manure costs at least $5.00.

H. E. Hooker places the cost of manure equally high, but seems willing to use all he can get, and does not think we can profitably employ artificial manures as a subst.i.tute.

In this I agree with him. But while I should not expect artificial manures, when used alone, to prove as cheap or as valuable as stable-manure at present prices, I think it may well be that a little nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, and superphosphate of lime, or dissolved Peruvian guano, might be used as an _auxiliary_ manure to great advantage.

Mr. H. E. Hooker, once sowed, at my suggestion, some sulphate of ammonia and superphosphate on part of a block of nursery trees, and he could not perceive that these manures did any good. Ellw.a.n.ger & Barry also tried them, and reported the same negative result. This was several years ago, and I do not think any similar experiments have been made since.

"And yet," said the Deacon, "you used these self same manures on farm-crops, and they greatly increased the growth."