i6o 



MAIXE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 



1903. 



THE WEIGHTS AND COMPOSITION OF THE THREE NIGHTS' DROPPING 

 OF ONE HUNDRED EIGFITY HENS TREATED WITH DIFFERENT MATE- 

 RIALS AND STORED FOR SIX MONTHS FROM MAY TO N(JVEMBER. 



o , 



OS m 



03 s 



t-1 C 



The three nights' dung of 

 ISO hens mixed with 

 chemicals as below. 



3359 

 3356 

 3355 



3354 



3357 



3350 



3361 



3360 



By itself 



15 pounds sawdust 



27 pounds kainit 



1 15 pounds sawdust — ^ 

 ( 54 pounds kainit j 



40 pounds plaster 



J 15 pounds sawdust.... I 

 ( 82 pounds plaster i 



24 pounds acid phosphate 



15 pounds sawdust ... ( 

 47 pounds acid phos. . \ 



Per 

 cent. 



.84 



.65 



3.97 



5.89 



.41 



.37 



.41 



.32 



44.5 

 63. 5 

 93.0 



116.5 

 91. 



124.5 

 78.0 



107.0 



Lbs. 

 .38 

 .41 



3.69 



6.86 

 .37 

 .45 

 .32 

 .34 



The three nights' droppings carried about 1.25 pounds of 

 nitrogen. From the dung stored by itself or with sawdust 

 more than half of this had escaped during the summer. The 

 lot stored wdth 40 pounds of plaster lost about one-third while the 

 lot stored with 82 pounds of plaster and 15 pounds of sawdust 

 suffered no loss. The lots with kainit and acid phosphate both 

 with and w^ithout saw^dust retained practically all of the nitrogen. 

 Both because of the danger of loss and its tendency to form into 

 hard lumps, the plaster is less desirable than either of the chemi- 

 cals tried. The addition of the sawdust materially improved the 

 mechanical condition of the lots so treated. 



I'he night droppings of the 180 hens (equivalent to 510 hens 

 for I night) weighed about 45 pounds and carried about 1.25 

 pounds of nitrogen, .8 pound of phosphoric acid and .4 pound 

 of potash, or expressed in percentages, it carried 2.8 per cent 

 nitrogen, 1.8 per cent phosphoric acid and .9 per cent potash. 



According to Storer's estimate the fertilizing constituents of 

 100 pounds of hen manure would be worth about 30 cents. 



