Gardening and Animals

1860

Manure

What is said of fish as a manure?
They become a powerful fertilizer. On the sea coast,
and in some instances at the mouth of large rivers, where
found in abundance, they are used for this purpose. The
most common way is to spread the fish on the surface, and in a few days to plough them under. But the better mode is to cover them with quicklime, and subsequently to mix them with earth. In a short period they are decomposed. Or they may be strewed in layers, on compost beds, with peat, ashes, slacked lime, charcoal, and vegetable matters. Any kind of fish that can be had, and is of but little or no value for food, is taken for manure.

What other animal substances are good for manure?
The blood and flesh that has become unfit for food; animals that have died from disease; the horns and hoofs; hair and wool; woolen rags, feathers, and old hats; old shoes and boots, and the remnants of leather from the shops of those who work it, are all good for manure, and should be carefully preserved and mixed in compost heaps. Also the refuse of the shambles, filth and all, should be used in the same way. The same may also be said of the animal offal of tan-yards. English agriculturists consider that five or six hundred pounds of the shavings of horn found about the shops of turners and comb makers, and of the hoofs when chopped fine, are sufficient for an acre of land; yet more would doubtless be better.

What is said of the action upon the soil of different kinds of animal substances?
Animal substances containing much water, as with flesh and blood, decay rapidly, and operate immediately and powerfully; but those which are dry, as horn, wool, and hair, decompose and act slowly, and last perhaps several seasons; while bone, like horn, may act for several years, as they are very productive of earthy matter.

How may the value of some animal substances, very frequently lost by neglect, be estimated?
It is said that the dead body of a cow, ox, or horse, that has died from disease, if properly buried in a bed of peat, or other similar vegetable substance, will yield at least a dozen loads of rich manure. And butchers' offal, when thus preserved and used, will yield ten times its weight of more valuable manure than is found in the barn-yard.

What estimate has been placed on human excrements?
If every human being voids annually enough urine to manure an acre of ground, then a family of ten persons, if so minded, could save enough to enrich ten acres; and the inhabitants of the city of New York, provided there were 500,000, if means were provided to collect and convert their liquid evacuations into manure, would fertilize 600,000 acres of land; which if well cultivated would yield vegetable food double the amount for their own consumption; and enough also to rear and fat the farm animals required for their nourishment. The same estimate may be made of the inhabitants of all other localities.

How might the liquid excrements be best preserved?
In the country there should be for each barn, stable, and barn-yard, a large cistern or tank for the purpose, of dimensions to contain all that could be collected. To this there should be gutters from the stalls to convey whatever is voided from the horned cattle and horses. Into this cistern or tank might also be carried in slop pails whatever is taken from the chambers of the mansion. Here also, could be deposited the soap-suds formed in the various operations of the kitchen. The value of what would thus be saved in a single year would balance the cost of the fixtures.

In what other way might they be preserved?
In the barn-yard and the cattle stables there might be successive coats of vegetable mold placed to receive them; and when sufficiently saturated, to be removed to a compost heap, that a new coat may succeed it. And in a retired place at a convenient distance from the mansion, might be a heap of this mould, on which daily the chamber slops might be emptied; and, as frequent as needful, to receive on its upper surface, a fresh coat of this mold, so that by the end of the year it would contain many cords of the very best of manure.

How might the human liquid excrements of the city be saved?
If there were to each house two thirty gallon oil casks placed in the yard, to be alternately used for receiving them, the process would be simple. Let it be supposed that one cask would be filled in the first half of the month. At the middle of the month the teams from the neighboring farms would simultaneously appear, and in a single night would remove these casks from a whole city. From the middle of the month to the end of it, the alternate casks would be filled; when the same teams would return with the casks they before took, to be again filled, and at the same time taking away as before, the ones filled in the two preceding weeks.

How much profit would this probably yield to each
family?
According to the above scheme, each family will have filled in the year twenty-four casks, which at five New-York shillings each, will be a saving of fifteen dollars to a family annually, and more than a million of dollars to the city of 500,000 inhabitants. At that low price, it is believed, there would be the greatest competition for the privilege of obtaining it, as it would be the cheapest manure to be had.

What other gain would be derived from such a plan?
In a few years, if it were fully carried into effect, the lands in the neighborhoods of large cities would become so fertile, there would at least double this sum be saved, in the reduction of the price of summer vegetables and milk, from being produced in so much greater quantities.