RErORT OF MR. FRANCIS IT. APPLETON.
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and these expensive contrivances, as well as the pipes for leading away the urine, were avoided. From the external appearance of my farms no one would know that cattle were present there.
In addition to this my method offers still greater advantage. Only half as much live-stock, and consequently half as much shed room, is required as by the old process.
The manure remains under the cattle as long as the space at hand admits, or until it is required for use. It often reaches a height of five feet in fifteen weeks. The fluid excrement, which contains as much fertilizing matter as the solid, soaks into the latter, and the whole is then trampled by the cattle and preserved from the contact of the air and from decay. The gases which are developed by decay are thus retained until the manure is spread on the fields. By the usual treatment in dung-hills, fermentation sets in in four to six weeks, and the urine collected in reservoirs becomes putrid in warm weather at the end of twenty-four hours, thus losing the greater part of its value.
In the way described, manure is produced containing one hundred per cent, more fertilizing matter than by the ordinary process; and since thus from half the quantity of livestock the same amount is obtained as previously, only half the amount of shed room is required, and this again reduces the building expenses to a very great extent.
There is the same saving, of course, on the capital expended for live-stock, for fodder and for labor, these being also reduced by one-half. This applies also to the amount of straw required.
The latter is cut into lengths of five or six inches to allow of its easily mixing with the manure and absorbing the fluids. This also assists in removing the mass from the stalls, and in spreading it, and in working it into the soil. The collection of the manure in the sheds causes no bad smell, and is.not at all injurious to the health of the cattle. This was clearly shown in 1854, when my process was introduced on the estates then under my care, so that it soon after became customary even in the military stables. Its convenience and value can be considered as practically proved by the fact that I have made use of it in all the cattle-sheds and stables on my
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