39^ AGRICULTURE OP MAINE. 



these animals it would amount in a single year to nearly 4,000,- 

 000 tons and would carry approximately 19,000 tons of nitrogen, 

 12,000 tons of phosphoric acid and 18,000 tons of potash. This 

 plant food in the world's market would cost about $10,000,000, 

 or sufficient to buy 300,000 tons of high grade commercial fer- 

 tilizer. It is doubtful if by present methods of management 

 one-half of this plant food is actually returned to the soil. 



The intelligent farmer recognizes that when he sells meat, 

 milk, grain, hay, fruit, vegetables, etc., from his farm or neg- 

 lects to save and use the manure produced, he removes from 

 his soil a certain amount of potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen 

 that must be restored sooner or later if production is to be main- 

 tained. If the farmer instead of selling of¥ his crops feeds them 

 to live stock on the farm, and if the business of stock feeding 

 is carried to the point where feed is purchased in addition to 

 that grown on the farm, a considerable addition may in this way 

 be made to the fertility of the farm at almost a nominal cost. 

 It is this indirect purchase of fertilizers practiced largely in 

 Europe that to quite a degree accounts for the profits of stock 

 raising abroad. Of course these advantages will not be secured 

 unless the manure produced is carefully saved and used. 



Generally speaking, manure produced from working or fat- 

 tening cattle contains from 90 to 95 per cent of the fertilizing 

 constituents contained in the food. Manure made from cows 

 in milk and from young growing animals contains from 50 to 75 

 per cent of the fertilizing constituents contained in the food. In 

 the case of animals not increasing in weight and not giving milk 

 the amount of fertilizing constituents in the manure will exactly 

 equal that contained in the food eaten. 



It seems to be difficult for the average farmer to really grasp 

 the idea that manure should be as carefully preserved from un- 

 necessary losses as any other product of the farm. The large 

 bulk of the material, the insidious losses, the ease with which 

 commercial fertilizers can be had, the expense of properly pro- 

 viding for storage and application of manure to land, and the 

 lack of proper understanding of the value of the manure and 

 of the large losses that prevail under ordinary- farm manage- 

 ment, are among the reasons that have led to this neglect. 



While it is customary to compare farm manure with fertilizers 

 on the basis of their content of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 



