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The changes taking place during the storage of farmyard manure.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

E. J. Russell  and
E. H. Richards
E. J. Russell
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, (Rupert Guinness Research Chemist).
E. H. Richards
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, (Rupert Guinness Research Chemist).
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Extract

We can now bring together the various results obtained during the course of our investigations.

We find that the changes are at a minimum under anaerobic conditions, and they are as follows:

1. In the laboratory experiments as much as 17 % of the dry matter may be converted into gas: in the heap the proportion is less.

2. The non-nitrogenous constituents are particularly affected, as much as one quarter of the pentosans may disappear during the process and other constituents break down in like proportion. The gas evolved contains carbon dioxide, marsh gas, and hydrogen.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 1917 , pp. 495 - 563
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1917

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References

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page 535 note 1 The glass spiral between B and C is to relieve the strain on the apparatus.

page 539 note 1 The manure was fresher and contained more straw than the last sample; its content of nitrogen was lower.

page 539 note 2 At first sight 20 c.c. may appear to be rather a large experimental error. It is however exceedingly difficult to get an accurate value for the initial and final volumes of air. The apparatus is in effect a volumenometer, and in addition to the difficulties inherent in this form, there is the further difficulty that the tension of aqueous vapour is not constant throughout, but is different in the flask from what it is in the reagent bulbs B or C, or the capacity bulb on the way back from the pump to the flask. These uncertainties cause errors in the initial and final amounts, and therefore still greater errors in the difference used in these calculations. The difference observed in the experiment on p. 538 is six times the error of the experiment.

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