Preparation of the manure.
Get as good a quality of fresh horse
manure as you can, and in sufficient quantity for
the amount of bed or beds you wish to make. Next
get it into suitable condition for making up into beds.
This can be done out of doors or under cover of a
shed, but preferably in the shed. Out of doors
the manure is under the drying influence of sun and
wind, and it is also liable to become over-wetted
by rain, but under cover we have full control of its
condition. All the manure for beds between July
and the end of October is prepared out of doors on
a dry piece of ground, but what is used after the
first of November, all through the winter, is handled
in a shed open to the south. During the autumn
months we get along very well with it out of doors;
after every turning cover the heap with strawy litter
to save it from the drying influences of sun and wind.
Remove this covering when next turned, and lay light
wooden shutters on top of it as a precaution against
rain. In the shed in winter the manure is protected
against rain and snow and we can always work it conveniently;
when the shed is open to the south as wagon
and wood-sheds often are we get the benefit
of the warm sunshine in the daytime in starting fermentation
in the manure, but in the event of dull, cold weather,
cover up the pile quite snugly with straw and shutters
to start the heat in it. Altogether, a warm, close
shed would be better.
It seldom happens that one can get
all the manure he wants at one time; it accumulates
by degrees. This is the case with the market grower
who uses many tons, and hauls it home from the city
stables a little at a time; also with the private
grower, who uses only a few bushels or half a cord,
and has it accumulate for days or weeks from his own
stable. As the manure accumulates throw it into
a pile, straw and all, but not into such a big pile
that it will heat violently; and particularly observe
that it shall not “fire-fang” or “burn”
in the heap. If it shows any tendency to do this,
turn it over loosely, sprinkle it freely with water,
spread it out a little, and after a few hours, or when
it has cooled off nicely, throw it up into a pile
again and tread it firmly to keep it moist and from
heating hastily.
When enough manure has accumulated
for a bed, prepare it in the following way: Turn
it over, shaking it up loosely and mixing it all well
together. Throw aside the dry, strawy part, also
any white “burnt” manure that may be in
it, and all extraneous matter, as sticks, stones,
old tins, bones, leather straps, rags, scraps of iron,
or such other trash as we usually find in manure heaps,
but do not throw out any of the wet straw; indeed,
we should aim to retain all the straw that has been
well wetted in the stable. If the manure is too
dry do not hesitate to sprinkle it freely with water,
and it will take a good deal of water to well moisten
a heap of dry manure. Then throw it into a compact
oblong pile about three or four feet high, and tread
it down a little. This is to prevent hasty and
violent heating and “burning,” for firmly
packed manure does not heat up so readily or whiten
so quickly as does a pile loosely thrown together.
Leave it undisturbed until fermentation has started
briskly, which in early fall may be in two or three
days, or in winter in six to ten days, then turn it
over again, shaking it up thoroughly and loosely and
keeping what was outside before inside now, and what
was inside before toward the outside now; and if there
are any unduly dry parts moisten them as you go along.
Trim up the heap into the same shape as you had before,
and again tread it down firmly. This compacting
of the pile at every turning reduces the number of
required turnings. When hot manure is turned
and thrown loosely into a pile it regains its great
heat so rapidly that it will need turning again within
twenty-four hours, in order to save it from burning,
and all practical men know that at every turning ammonia
is wasted, the most potent food of the
mushroom. We should therefore endeavor to get
along with as few turnings as possible; at the same
time, never allow any part of the manure to burn,
even if we have to turn the heap every day. These
turnings should be continued until the manure has lost
its tendency to heat violently, and its hot, rank
smell is gone, usually in about three weeks’
time. If the manure, or any part of it, is too
dry at any turning, the dry part should be sprinkled
with water and kept in the middle of the heap.
Plain water is what is generally used for moistening
the manure, but I sometimes use liquid from the stable
tanks, which not only answers the purpose of wetting
the dry materials, but it also is a powerful stimulant
and welcome addition to the manure. But the greatest
vigilance should be observed to guard against overmoistening
the manure; far better fail on the side of dryness
than on that of wetness.
If the manure is too wet to begin
with it should be spread out thinly and loosely and
exposed to sun and wind, if practicable, to dry.
Drying by exposure in this way is not as enervating
as “burning” in a hot pile, and better
have recourse to any method of drying the manure than
use it wet. If, on account of the weather or lack
of convenience for drying, the manure can not be dried
enough, add dry loam, dry sand, dry half-rotted leaves,
dry peat moss, dry chaff, or dry finely cut hay or
straw, and mix together.
The proper condition of the manure,
as regards dryness or moistness, can readily be known
by handling it. Take a handful of the manure and
squeeze it tight; it should be unctuous enough to hold
together in a lump, and so dry that you can not squeeze
a drop of water out of it.
Some private gardeners in England
lay particular stress upon collecting the fresh droppings
at the stables every day, and spreading them out upon
a shed or barn floor to dry, and in this way keeping
them dry and from heating until enough has accumulated
for a bed, when the bed is made up entirely of this
material, or of part of this and part of loam.
But market gardeners, the ones whose bread and butter
depend upon the crops they raise, never practice this
method, and that patriarch in the business, Richard
Gilbert, denounces the practice unstintedly.
Different growers have different ideas
of preparing manure for mushroom beds, but the aim
of all is to get it into the best possible condition
with the least labor and expense, and to guard against
depriving it of any more ammonia than can be helped.
See Mr. Gardner’s method of preparing manure,
.
Loam and Manure Mixed.- Mushroom
beds are often formed of loam and manure mixed together,
say one-third or one-fourth part of the whole being
loam, and the other two-thirds or three-fourths manure;
if a larger proportion of loam is used it will render
the beds rather cold unless they are made unusually
deep. I am not prepared to affirm or deny that
this mixed material has any advantages over plain manure;
I use it considerably every year and with good results;
at the same time, I get as good crops from the plain
manure beds. But it has many warm friends who
are excellent growers.
In preparing this mixed material I
use fresh sod loam well chopped up, and add it to
the manure in this way: First select the manure
and throw it into a heap to ferment, as before explained;
then after the first turning cover the heap with a
layer of this loam about three or four inches thick,
enough to arrest the steam; at the next turning mix
this casing of loam with the manure, and when the
heap is squared off add another coating of loam of
the same thickness in the same way as before, and
so on at each turning until the whole mass is fit for
use, and the full complement of loam, say one-fourth
the full bulk, has been added. In this way much
of the ammonia that otherwise would be evaporated from
the manure is arrested and retained.
Some growers, when they first shake
out their fresh manure, add the full complement of
loam to it at once and mix them together. Others,
again, Mr. Denton, of Woodhaven, for instance, prepare
the manure in the ordinary way and when ready for
use add the quota of loam. I use good sod loam
for two reasons, namely, because it is the very best
that can be used for the purpose, and, also, after
being used in the mushroom beds it is a capital material,
and in fine condition for use in potting soft-wooded
plants. But the loam commonly used to mix with
the manure is ordinary field soil. If the loam
is ordinarily moist to begin with, and also the manure,
there is very little likelihood of any of the material
getting too dry during the preparation. And much
less preparation is needed, for the presence of the
loam lessens, considerably, the probability of hasty,
violent fermentation.
Mr. Withington, of South Amboy, N.
J., uses rather a stinted amount of loam in his manure.
He writes me: “We made up our beds this
year with a proportion of loam in the manure, say
one part loam to eight parts manure, but have always
used clear manure heretofore, and I think the beds
hold out longer than when only manure is used.”