Manure



 

Manure is organic matter used as nitrogen that is trapped by bacteria in the soil. Higher organisms then feed on the fungi and bacteria in a chain of life that comprises the soil food web.

The term "manure" was used for inorganic fertilizers in the past, but this usage is now very rare.[1]

Etymology

The word manure came from Middle English "manuren" meaning "to cultivate land," and initially from French "main-oeuvre" = "hand work" alluding to the work which involved manuring land.

Types

There are two main classes of manures in soil management: green manures and animal manures. Compost is distinguished from manure in that it is the decomposed remnants of organic materials (which may, nevertheless, include manure).

Most animal manure is feces — excrement of plant-eating mammals (herbivores) and poultry — or plant material (often straw) which has been used as bedding for animals and thus is heavily contaminated with their feces and urine.

Green manures are crops grown for the express purpose of plowing them under. In so doing, fertility is increased through the nutrients and organic matter that are returned to the soil. Leguminous crops, such as clover, also "fix" nitrogen through nodes in the root structure.

Other types of plant matter used as manure or fertilizer include: the contents of the rumens of slaughtered ruminants; spent hops left over from making beer.  

Uses of manure

  Manure has been used for centuries as a composting are valuable fertilizers.

The dried manure of animals has been used as fuel throughout history. Dried manure (usually known as dung) of cow was, and still is, an important fuel source in countries such as India, while camel dung may be used in treeless regions such as deserts. On the Oregon Trail, pioneering families collected large quantities of "buffalo chips" in lieu of scarce firewood. It has been used for many purposes, in cooking fires and to combat the cold desert nights.

Another use of manure is to make paper, this has been done with dung from elephants where it is a small industry in Africa and Asia, and also horses, llamas, and kangaroos. Other than the llama, these animals are not ruminants and thus tend to pass plant fibres undigested in their dung.

Precautions

Manure generates foul the air over a very large area and require considerable effort to extinguish. Large feedlots must therefore take care to ensure that piles of fresh manure (faeces) do not get excessively large. There is no serious risk of spontaneous combustion in smaller operations.

There is also a risk of insects carrying feces to food and water supplies, making them unsuitable for human consumption.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Ronald Fisher seems to have used the word manure systematically for what we would call fertilizer today.

Further reading

  • Anderson, S., and F. Ertug-Yaras. (1998.). "Fuel fodder and faeces: an ethnographic and botanical study of dung fuel use in central Anatolia.". Environmental Archaeology 1: 99-109.
  • Charles, M. P. (1998.). "Fodder from dung: the recognition and interpretation of dung derived plant material from archaeological sites". Environmental Archaeology 1: 111-122.
  • Fenton, Alexander (1985). "A fuel of necessity: animal manure". Alexander Fenton The Shape of the Past. Essays in Scottish Ethnology: 96-111, Edinburgh: John Donald. 
  • Miller, N. F. (1984.). "The use of dung as fuel: an ethnographic example and an archaeological application". PalĂ©orient 10: 71-79.
  • Winterhalder, B., R. Larsen, and R. B. Thomas. (1974.). "Dung as an essential resource in a highland Peruvian community". Human Ecology 2: 89-104.
 
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