Relative Values

Categories: STABLE MANURE

The plant-food content of manure is determined

chiefly by the feed. The animals add nothing: they subtract. The kind

of animals consuming the feed does not affect materially the value of

the manure made from it, if the animals are mature and not giving milk.

The manures from the various kinds of animals differ in value per ton

because the feeds differ in character and the manure varies in

percentage of water. On an ave age, however, the total annual product

of manure from farm animals, per 1000 pounds of live weight, does not

vary widely in value. The rich protein feeds given the cow, and the

heavy feeding, more than make amends for the fertility that goes into

the milk, and her annual product, per 1000 pounds of live weight, may

exceed in value that of the horse by 25 per cent. This is likewise true

of the pig, figured on the 1000-pound basis, while in the case of the

sheep the value, per 1000 pounds of live weight, is near that of the

horse.






These variations are not wide enough to have great importance to the

livestock farmer. The manure represents to him four fifths of all the

fertility that was contained by the feed he gave the various animals.

They added no plant-food, and they took away only a fraction that was

not large. They converted the crops into a form of plant-food that

either is available or can become so quickly enough, and in addition to

the nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash that would have a high

valuation in a commercial fertilizer, there is a body of organic matter

that affects the physical condition of the soil favorably. The manure

also promotes the multiplication of friendly soil bacteria. Its

possibilities are so great that the inference of many farmers that no

successful agriculture can be maintained without it is very natural.