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Show 1 SUMMER USE OF THE MANURE SPREADER. There are a great many implements on the farm that can be used but a few days or, at most, a week in a year, like the harvester or the corn planter, while there are other implements imple-ments that can and should be used at intervals the year round. The manure spreader is an example of this last named class and we 'believe that it will pay every farmer who owns a manure spreader to keep the same in use at every opportunity, especially in the summer. Assuredly every owner of a manure spreader realizes ' its' superiority over the fork in spread ing manure, in makng the handling of manure more rapid and less disagreeable dis-agreeable and in making it possible to distribute the labor of getting manure I to the fields throughout the year. We doubt, however, if all farmers who own manure spreaders make as much of this last-named advantage as they should. By allowing a spreader to stand idle in the shed when there is manure to be hauled out certainly puts the manure spreader in the samc , class with those machines which, though necessary on the farm, arc in ! the nature of luxuries. There arc ever so many ireasons why J the manure spreader should be kept I busy at interval all summer. As a 1 primary reason wc would say to get ' the most good out of the manure. ? Every day that manure remains in i piles or about the yards it loses a I part of its value, due chiefly to two things', namely, fermentation, in which case nitrogen is lost, and leaching, leach-ing, in which case valuable salts arc washed out. In horse and hog stable manure the loss, of course, is greatest, while in the case of manure that ii.' found under the cover of stock sheds the loss is the least. Wc believe that by keeping the manure from accumulating ac-cumulating and wasting in the ways mentioned a manure spreader can be made to pay for itself in a couple of seasons on the average farm. Wc realize hhat so long as there appears ap-pears to be no change in the material appearance of manure after standing in piles for some time, some men arc going to doubt the loss which is gen- crally calculated in sucn cases. It should be remembered, however, that the part of manure which is viewed by the eye, namely, straw, stalks and other oth-er coarse matter, is merely a carrier for the real value of, wc might say, the essence of the same. The carder is valuable only for its effect on the physical condition of the soil. As a part of manure it is also a trifle more advanced in decomposition. The nitrogen, potash and phosphorus for which manure is largely valuable are hidden in the manure pile just as common com-mon salt, for example, is unobscrva-blc unobscrva-blc when it is in brine. The part the manure spreader plays when used to remove manure as fast as a load or two accumulates, in improving sanitation around buildings and farm premises, is not to be over looked. First, it aids in bettering the condition of the atmosphere around the stables and even around the farm dwellings, and it is needless to say that "bad air is harmful to animals a? well as to human beings. Next, by keeping all accumulations of manure regularly removed reduces the number of flics about the premises in a great measure, as manure piles furnish an ideal place for fly eggs to hatch and come through the maggot state of maturity. Tf you don't believe it, remove with a fork the surface of a pile of horse stable manure keeping your eye open for thick white worms, which are the maggots mentioned. They will often be found in manure which has not been removed from the horse stalls for several days. The smaller the accumulations of manure around the premises, especially horse manure, therefore, the fewer the chances for flics to breed. While, of course, it is impossible to prevent some eggs from hatching, the number 1 I AMtfilfaftiiiA4tetfitaMliifafc that will hatch can be reduced to a minimum. Wc believe this fact in connection with those already mentioned men-tioned is strong argument in favor of keeping the manure sprcador in commission the season through. |