240 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



Poultry Manure contains a comparatively large amount of all 

 the different forms of plant food, being especially rich in nitrogen 

 and potash. It undergoes fermentation readily and loses nitrogen 

 unless properly treated with absorbents or preservatives. It is a 

 very quick-acting form of plant food. A single hen produces 40 

 to GO pounds a year of manure. 



Influence of Age of Animal on Manure. — A young, grow- 

 ing animal requires and retains in its body a greater quantity of 

 nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid compounds than does a 

 grown animal. Therefore, manure from a young animal is of 

 less value than that from a mature one. Full-grown animals, not 

 carving in weicht, excrete essentiallv all the fertilizing constitu- 

 ents taken into the body in the food. In the Case of growing ani- 

 mals and cows in milk, from 50 to 75 per cent, of the fertilizing 

 constituents of the food passes into the manure; in the case of fat- 

 tening or working animals, from 90 to 95 per cent. 



Influence of Food upon Manure. — In the case of any one 

 class of animals, the value of the manure is, as a rule, more de- 

 pendent upon the kind of food than any other one condition. It 

 is a serious but not uncommon mistake among farmers to sup- 

 pose that the process of animal digestion adds something to the 

 food. While the food materials are changed more or less com- 

 pletely and appear in the dung and urine in forms different from 

 those existing in the food before it was eaten, and while these 

 forms are, in general, more available as plant food than the forms 

 existing in the original food, still there can be in the excrement 

 no more nitrogen, potash, phosphoric acid, etc., than there was 

 in the food eaten, and, in most cases, as will be noticed later, there 

 is some loss of fertilizing materials. 



Relative Value of Fertilizing Materials in Different Classes of 

 Foods. — The amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash in 

 manure depends upon the amount of these materials in the food. 

 From the table given below, it can be seen that concentrated 

 food-, such as meat scrap, cotton seed meal, linseed meal and 

 wheat bran must yield richest manures. Next to these foods 

 would come leguminous plants, such as clover, alfalfa, etc. The 

 cereals, such as wheat, oats, corn, etc., would follow third. Root 

 crops would come last. 



