The Content Of Manure

Categories: STABLE MANURE

When the crops of a farm are fed, the manure

contains nearly all the plant-food that went originally into the crops.

In the case of idle work-horses on a maintenance ration, the manure

contains practically all the plant-food. Cows giving milk remove some

fertility, and a growing calf or colt may take out 30 per cent. There

is some waste beyond control, but when manure is made on tight floors

with good bedding, and is d awn to the field fast as made, on the

average it carries back to the soil fully four fifths of the plant-food

that existed in the feed. Disregarding all cash valuations for the

moment, here is an index of value that should be sufficient in itself

to encourage the feeding of crops on the farm and the careful saving of

the manure. When one can market his crops to animals on the farm at

their cash value, and at the same time retain for his fields four

fifths of all the fertility, he is like a manufacturer who can use much

of his raw material over and over again. The value is in the manure,

and full appreciation is lacking only because a majority of farms do

not provide for careful saving of its valuable constituents.