| Show M 21 A 4 1 ith 7 P N vi Z a s ai going anar lo 10 he have lave everdeen ever been 4 famine impends im yet the fai farmer me wasted more gioi e than man four hundred ed million dollars dallai snoah worth of manure the bestfelt best fertilizer last iasi year agy S sk yay W g ara y try 22 mlp vr fertilizers are going to be higher than they bave ever been before owing I 1 ng to the war so acute has the potash situation become that uncle sam among all his other diplomatic troubles has been dickering with the allies and with germany to let a little miserable shipment of 10 tons ot of potash fertilizer come through the blockade forthe for the usa use of the department of agricultures agri cultures farm experiment work yet with such a fertilizer famine staring the american farmer in the face he has bus deliberately wasted during the last year between tour four hundred million and four hundred and fifty million dollars worth of manure the best of all fertilizers and tills this according to author authorities lpes on agriculture and fertilizer ls Is a regular occurrence it Is not theoretical it to Is actual loss and the strangest part of the story Is that the great bulk if not all of chis waste could be ba saved just as easily as not nol in facts fact most of it would be saved if american farmers were for instance dutch or german farmers it would be saved by the farmers of any of tile the old countries where every pound of soil fertility Is conserved as automatically and as naturally as though it were minted money in germany the size of the manure pile has long been an index to the wealth of the former farmer what the value would be of the ole increased crops that would result from this american plant food now wasted can hardly be estimated but the increased yields of corn wheat potatoes and all farm crops would amount to something enormous on the basis of using tills this needlessly wasted strength in manure on the ehg corn crop alone it to la estimated that the yield would be increased at least a billion and a halt bushels besides permanently bently y improving the condition of the soil to a tremendous degree in tact fact a good many cornfields ot of the present day would be so surprised at receiving their quota of this wasted soil fertility that they would not recognize themselves and yet the dutch or the Ger manway of handling manure efficient at as it Is Is not the best Amerl Amer rans trans have discovered the way to prevent all waste in m manure anure end and it involves nomore no more labor or expense on the part of th the e farmer than his I 1 present methods through which he loses annually nearly half bull a billion dolla dollars tho the average successful farmer or gardener will that this statement apply to him birn say that tie be knows I 1 the value of g good manure and uses ever every Y bit of it thi that he ciket can get but Is he be certain that aff makes the best use of all his manure when he hauls 0 ton of manure on to the field Is its fertilizing content till all that it should be and Is he sur sure 0 that diat froni from 10 to CO 50 per cent of its crop crol pro strength has bus not ni be been dissipated through leaching g fire fudging or lack 0 of provision to absorb or conserve the animal urine take as ats an instance ethe the ease case of urine alone A cow will prod produce uce 45 to io 50 pounds of solid manure day but she will also mako from 20 to io 80 30 pounds of a 0 urine and fully one half vt of the nit nitrogen rOten la in her ration goes into that urine so tt it Is most important to conserve the urine for nitrogen Is the most ex es pensive element of manure or fertilizer the other two important plant foods are potash and phosphorus even though bough manure Is highly regard regarded ed by all good farmers nevertheless there la Is probably no product of equal value which Is so BO miserably neglected and regarding which such real ignorance prevails the first great source of loss Is through the incomplete absorption of the urine and tt it is not infrequent to see no attempt being made to save cave this portion of the manure in spite of the fact that it Is richer in both nitrogen and potash than Is the dung and in spite of the tact fact that these fertilizers tili are more available for the plant in the urine than in the dung the second greatest source of waste of manure la is the loss incurred by leaching it if a good sized manure pile Is stacked up against the side of the stable where the water from the eaves can drip on it or it if it Is piled on a slope or other exposed place every heavy rain washes away crisp bank notes in the form of nitrogen and potash anese leached beached chemicals are the most valuable portions of the pile the most available tor for plant forcing the third common source of loss Is that incurred by heating and fermenting when manure Is 13 put in plies piles it soon heats and throws off more or less gas and vapor the fermentation which produces 4 these gases Is caused by the action of bacteria or minute organisms the bacteria which produce the most rapid fermentation in manure in order to work their bests best need plenty plenay of air or more strictly oxygen therefore fermentation will be most rapid in loosely piled manure heat beat and some moisture are necessary for fermentation but it inthe the manure Is wet and heavy fermentation Is checked because tho the temperature Is lowered and much of tile the oxygen excluded from the pile the strong odor of atu ammonia moola so common around al a stable is a simple evidence ev of fermentation the and the loss of nitrogen which Is going on ia fresh manure loses in the pro process cess of decay from 40 to 70 per cent of its original weight an doton DO 80 ton heap of cow manure left exposed for one year lost 66 per cen cent t of its dry substance some tests conducted by the united states department of agri culture showed that two tons of horse manure exposed in a pile tor for five months lost losi 57 per cent of its gross weight CO 60 per cent of 0 its nitrogen 47 per cent of f its phosphoric acid and 76 per cent of its poth potash or an average loss of three fifths five tons tona of cow cov manure exposed for the same length bengt h of time in a compact pile lost through leaching and dissipation ofgus of gases es 49 40 per cent in gross weight 41 per cent of its nitrogen 19 per cent of its phosphoric add acid and 8 per cent of its potash here was ivas a terr terrific tile waste veritably yet net not greater than Is to be found in roost most common farm practice what would any business man or any farmer think or of a cit city y real estate Invest investment mentar or a land in vest went which depreciated in value in this wise ano and what it if he be discovered that he could hiie have a prevented it at almost no cost or extra effort to himself the farm scientists and the th e theorists can preach preace all they want to about the economy of the tanner farmer building fine big r sheds to keel beep the rain off the tha manure or other such plans but it goes without saying sayin that tile the average farmer g going to see it that way but he do ernt have to I 1 the remedy for such losses Is simple in the extreme in facts fact exactly the right way of handling manure so a aa to save all this loss ts is about the cheapest cleanest and altogether the easiest way to handle manure manum the first step to prevent the th e loss logs of tile the fertilizing elements in manure Is to provide plen plenty ty of bedding or litter later in the stable to absorb and save all the be ba liquid the losses due to fermentation can greatly C chec bee d by mixing horse manu manure re with cow manure and making the temporary plies piles compact air and by thoroughly wetting to as to exclude the t in excluding the ano air the manure which will assist and also reduce the temperature the ideal way ou oil the th e average farm Is to follow the plan all through the year of hauling manure directly from the sta stable ble and spreading it at once notion among farmers there Is a generally prevailing that if manure Is hauled and spread in midsummer the s sun un will scorch it to a cinder and burn all the good out of it the government agricultural station in maryland just outside of washington decided to determine this matter accurately and its analytical experiments have exploded two very MY common beliefs the summer burning theory being one of thorn them the other common belief which has baa been blown to atoms Is that it Is better to plow manure under in thelwall th the elfall fall than to leave it exposed on the lands surface during the winter and then plow it under in the spring in the first instance manure aprea spread d tn in burning july and allowed to stand until the following spring gave pet better ter results in carefully checked experiments peri ments than that spread in the following spring just before plowing in the second series of experiments peri ments better yields were secured after allowing the manure to ileon lie on top of the land all winter and plowing it under in the spring than were obtained from plowing it under n the tall fall |
