278 Bureau of Farmkrs' Institutes. 



How can we get most value from manure? 



Mr. Cook. — I don't know. It would depend on how the manure 

 was kept, as a rule. According to the Cornell analysis, newly- 

 made manures, urine included, is worth from $2 to $2. GO per ton. 

 We have not been able, so far, to compost manure without loss^ 

 so we draw ours out every day it is made, and spread it where it 

 will be wanted. There will be no loss, except it is washed off the 

 ground. The potash and phosphoric acid cannot be evaporated^ 

 and, unless the manure heats up, there will be no loss of nitrogen. 

 If one can save his manure so as not to have it heat, it may be 

 most profitable to store it, but it will be found hard to do it. 



What is the best method of keeping up and increasing fertility, and 

 what crops do you recommend as best for the purpose, on farms run for 

 all purposes? 



Mr. Van Alstyne. — The first and best method of keeping up 

 fertility will be found in keeping farm animals. Grow crops to 

 feed the animals, then save and apply the manure from them. 

 The best crop to raise is the manure crop; but it should all be 

 saved. This means the liquids as well as the solids. Sixty per 

 cent, of the value of the voidings is in the urine, and that is the 

 portion that, as a rule, is usually lost. To-day, with the same 

 number of cows I kept twenty years ago, I am making at least 

 twice as much manure as I did then, while its value is fully 

 doubled. 



Years ago the cows were milked in the yard and allowed to 

 run out, while the stable floors were leaky. To-day the floors are 

 tight, with water-tight gutters behind the cows. Into these gut- 

 ters we put horse manure, road dust, or land plaster, to absorb the 

 urine. As a result, I manured well eight acres of land last fall 

 from the manure removed from the gutters during the summer, 

 which, under the old way, would have been dropped in the barn- 

 yard and not drawn out till the next year, when the urine would 

 have all been lost and much of the nitrogen in the solids. 



Would it be advisable to use hen manure as a fertilizer on land intended 

 for strawberries? 



Mr, Converse. — All the hen manure made on our farm goes on 

 to the strawberries. There is no better manure. If, however, I 

 wanted to make a " quick start " of the plants, I would apply a 



