Talks on Manures

Talks on Manures, by Joseph Harris

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Talks on Manures, by Joseph Harris This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Talks on Manures A Series of Familiar and Practical Talks Between the Author and the Deacon, the Doctor, and other Neighbors, on the Whole Subject
Author: Joseph Harris
Release Date: October 3, 2006 [EBook #19448]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALKS ON MANURES ***

Produced by Louise Hope, Juliet Sutherland, Alicia Williams and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. Cover picture from Balopticon Books (http://www.balopticon.com)

[Transcriber's Note:
This text file is intended for those readers who cannot use the "real" (utf-8) version. Some compromises have been made.
Fractions are written out, with leading hyphen where needed: 1/5, 2-1/3.
The [ae] and [oe] ligatures have been written out as ae, oe.
The English "pounds" symbol is expressed as [L].
The very large tables in Chapters XXVII (tables X-XXI) and XXIX (II-V) use a special shorthand to express fractions: \1 = 1/8 \2 = 2/8 = 1/4 \3 = 3/8 \4 = 4/8 = 1/2 etc. The character \ (backslash) does not occur in any other context.]
* * * * *
TALKS ON MANURES.
A Series of Familiar and Practical Talks Between the Author and the Deacon, the Doctor, and Other Neighbors, on the Whole Subject of Manures and Fertilizers.
by
JOSEPH HARRIS, M.S.
Author of "Walks and Talks on the Farm," "Harris on the Pig," etc.
NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION,
Including a Chapter Specially Written for It by Sir John Bennet Lawes, of Rothamsted, England.
[Illustration: Publisher's Logo]
New York: Orange Judd Company, 1919

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by the ORANGE JUDD COMPANY In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Printed in U. S. A.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Farming as a Business.-- High Farming and Good Farming.-- Summer-fallowing and Plowing under Clover.-- We must raise larger Crops per Acre.-- Destruction of Weeds.-- Farming is Slow Work.-- It requires Personal Attention. 9
CHAPTER II.
What is Manure?-- The definitions given by the Deacon and the Doctor. 19
CHAPTER III.
Something about Plant-food.-- All soils on which plants grow contain it.-- The Season.-- Water, Shade, Light, and Mulch, not Manures.-- Several Definitions of Manure. 21
CHAPTER IV.
Natural Manure.-- Accumulated Plant-food in the Soil.-- Exhaustion of the Soil.-- Why our Crops are so Poor.-- How to get Larger Crops.-- We must Drain, Cultivate thoroughly, and Make Richer Manure. 23
CHAPTER V.
Swamp-muck and Peat as Manure.-- Draining Swamp-land.-- Composition of Peat and Muck. 29
CHAPTER VI.
What is Potential Ammonia. 31
CHAPTER VII.
Tillage is Manure.-- The Doctor's Lecture on Manure. 32
CHAPTER VIII.
Summer-fallowing.-- Mr. Lawes' crop every other year.-- Wheat after Barley.-- For Larger Crops raise less frequently, and Manure Higher; also keep better Stock, and Feed Higher. 34
CHAPTER IX.
How to Restore a Worn-out Farm.-- The Author's Farm.-- Tillage renders the Plant-food stored in the soil available.-- Cultivated Lands contain less Plant-food, but are more productive.-- Grass alone will not make rich land. 37
CHAPTER X.
How to Make Manure.-- We must get it out of the Land. 41
CHAPTER XI.
The Value of the Manure depends upon the Food--not upon the Animal. 43
CHAPTER XII.
Foods which Make Rich Manure.-- Table giving the composition of 31 kinds of Food and the value of the Manure they yield.-- Cotton-seed Cake.-- English and German Clover.-- Nitrogenous matter in Rich and Poor Foods.-- Manure from Corn compared with that from Straw. 45
CHAPTER XIII.
Horse-manure and Farm-yard Manure.-- Why the one is richer than the other.-- Amount of Manure from a Horse.-- Composition of Farm-yard Manure.-- We draw and spread a ton to get 33 lbs. of Nitrogen, Phosphoric Acid, and Potash. 50
CHAPTER XIV.
Fermenting Manure.-- Composition of Manure when Fresh and in its stages of Fermentation.-- Loss in Fermentation and from Leaching.-- Tables showing the composition of Manure at different stages.-- Fermenting makes Manure more Soluble. 52
CHAPTER XV.
Keeping Manure under Cover.-- Dr. Voelcker's Experiments.-- Manure Fermented Outside and Under Cover.-- Loss from keeping Manure spread in the Barn-yard.-- Keeping well-rotted Manure in a Heap.-- Conclusions from Dr. Voelcker's Experiments. 59
CHAPTER XVI.
An English Plan of Keeping Manure.-- Box feeding of Cattle.-- Spreading Manure at once.-- Piling in Heaps in the Field.-- Old Sods and Ashes from Charred Sods. 69
CHAPTER XVII.
Soluble Phosphates in Farm-yard Manure.-- Fermented, the Manure has the most.-- Over 40 per cent. of the Phosphoric Acid is Soluble. 72
CHAPTER XVIII.
How the Deacon makes Manure.-- A good plan for making poor Manure. 74
CHAPTER XIX.
How John Johnston Manages His Manure. Summer-fallows for Wheat.-- Does not plow under Clover.-- Value of Manure from different foods.-- Piling Manure.-- Applies Manure to Grass-land in Fall, and Plows under in Spring for Corn.-- His success due to the Effect of Manure on Grass.-- It brought in Red Clover.