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Show MANURE IN WINTER. Fermenting Manure in Heaps Joseph Harris- Method of Piling Manure. Joseph Harris, recognized authority on the subject of manures, believes there is much to be gained by properly fermenting ferment-ing manures. Following are some remarks re-marks made by him in The Rural New Yorker on thi? subject: Fermenting manure makes the insoluble insolu-ble plant food more soluble, and consequently conse-quently more active and valuable. I feel confident that we can pile manure ont of doors and allow it to ferment all winter without any loss of ammonia worth talking about. Many farmers spy the)7 have tried to ferment manure in winter, but the pile lies dormant and cold, and the manure they throw on every day from tho cow still freezes solid. No doubt fermentation is caused by th-3 microbes. These microbes, or fungua plant, will not grow at a low temperature, tempera-ture, but must have food heat and air. If you are going to start a fire you got kindlings that will burn quickly ami heat the wood until it burns. Cow manure ma-nure is wood and needs plenty of kindling kind-ling to make it bum. Horse or hen manure ma-nure is easily started and ferments so rapidly that a heap of it is apt to firefang. It is just wlwit is needed to mis with the cow and pig manure. In starting a pile of manure, especially if it contains much cow dung, it is a good plan to get a f&w loads of fermented horse, sheep or hen manure. We start the fire with horse manure and pile on anything we have in the yards or stables or henhouse. In my own case we wheel the manure up a plank on the heap and spread it every day as soon as it is wheeled on. The pilo should be about five feet high, less or more, according to the rainfall. The more rain or snow the higher should be the pile. When the pileis high enough stai-t another alongside. In doing this, especially in cold weather, take a quantity quan-tity of hot manure from the old pile. If there is any accumulation of manure in the sheep or pig pens draw it out and spread it on the pile. Break up the hot manure from the old pile and mix it with the fresh manure. This hot fermenting fer-menting manure is full of the microbes that act as "yeast" and cause fermeuta-tion. fermeuta-tion. Do you turn over the pile? Sometimes Some-times and sometimes not. It is a good thing to do. It mixes the manure, breaks up the lumps and starts fermentation afresh. If the manure is to be used on a pile some distance from the barnyard, 1 draw it out from the piles in the barnyard barn-yard and make it into piles in the field In the field make the pile about five feet high and five wide and of any desired length. In making the new heap it should not be forgotten that we are "turning the pile" the object of which is to mix the manure and get it uniform and induce it to fresh fermentation. In the old pilo the outsiders will not be fermented. fer-mented. -Home layers that were put on in very cold weather will be cold and raw while others will be warm. Pains should betaken to mix these all together. Another important point is to build up the pile square on the sides and ends like a hotbed, and not sloping like the roof of a house. A conical heap is the worst possible form, as the greatest proportion of a given quantity of manure is exposed to the atmosphere, while if carefully made into a square heap a less proportion propor-tion will be exposed. Again, the heap needs water, and the sloping sides carry it off. If the manure is very rich, or you have mixed with it bone dust or other matter rich iu nitrogen, or a considerable quantity quan-tity of hen manure, there maybe danger of too rapid fermentation. In that case the best remedy is to saturate the heap with water, and it would bean excellent thing to mix some superphosphate with the water, say a pound to a pail of water. If this cannot be conveniently done, the heap should not be made over three or four feet high. In farming no ironclad rules can be laid down. We must exercise our judgment and run our chances. It maybe remarked that driving driv-ing over the heap or even trampling it down with the feet will check excessive fermentation. Frorlts In Poultry Keeping. The Stockman thinks that women value the hens at something like their true worth, and if they were given entire en-tire charge of the poultry and had fair facilities lor keeping them they would make something out of them surely. Whether you count in comparison, the labor or the feed or the house, the hens will draw ahead of any other kind of farm stock when it conies to result in dollars. Say a good cow costs fifty dollars dol-lars and you make a profit on her of twenty-five dollars a year; that's 50 per cent, on your investment- Now fifty-dollars fifty-dollars will buy 100 large pnllets in the fall, and in one year these pullets can be easily made to pay a profit over cost of feed of J485. - "Color In Horses and Caftle. The white color of horse3 and cattlo has 'been developed from tropical resources, re-sources, and it is clearly shown by the superiority of the white horses of the desert and the tendency of horses and cattle taken from the colder climates of the north to the hot climates of South America and our southern states, that the gray colors increase'' ai4 withstand the heat better. The gray horses are more popular in the southern states and hot climates. Western Agriculturist. Here aud There. The American Southdown association will expend $1,000 in special premiums at the World's Columbian exposition. A recent report says that in' the state of Virginia there are J5,000,OOU acres of land lying untilled from year to year. According to one estimate the cranberry cran-berry product on Cape Cod exceeded last year the largest yield of any previous cuop. A $500 prize is offered by E. A. Man-sell,' Man-sell,' of Shropshire, England, for the best American bred Shropshire ram which shall be exhibited at the World's Columbian Colum-bian exposition. The government of Victoria, South Australia, is going to prevent the destruction de-struction of the wild turkey, which is considered the best destroyer of locusts and tther iaaoct pests that can be found. |