Live Stock Breeders' Association. 271 



These analyses indicate that nearly 40 per cent of the total ni- 

 trogen given in feed and bedding has been recovered in the manure ; 

 60 per cent of the total phosphorus, and more than 70 per cent of the 

 total potassium. If we give to the elements thus recovered the val- 

 ues given by the State inspector of fertilizers in Ohio to the same 

 elements, when carried in tankage and muriate of potash, they 

 would have a total value amounting to about 20 per cent of the cost 

 of the feed and bedding given to the cattle, , 



I would call attention to the fact that the quantity of manure 

 produced, as indicated by our figures, is smaller than has been re- 

 ported from some other sources. The cattle producing this manure 

 were in part kept on a dirt floor and in part upon a cemented floor, 

 and the manure was collected and weighed about once each month, 

 so that there was some loss before it was weighed. The figures, there- 

 fore, are below the possible attainment in manure production. 



Not only have we subjected the manure to chemical analysis, but 

 for ten years past we have been conducting field experiments, in or- 

 der to determine whether the results indicated by chemical analysis 

 could be realized in actual farm practice. These experiments I de- 

 scribed here a year ago. Briefly stated, when manure has been re- 

 enforced with materials carrying phosphorus, thus bringing out 

 the full effect of its relative excess in nitrogen and potassium, we 

 have been able to secure as great an increase of crop from the pound 

 of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium carried in manure as from 

 the same weight of the same elements carried in the most effective 

 combination of chemical fertilizers as yet discovered in our ex- 

 periments, thus fully realizing the theoretical value of manure, 

 when properly balanced, as indicated by chemical analysis. 



To put this matter in another way, we have realized from each 

 ton of phosphated manure, applied to corn which has been followed 

 by wheat and clover without further manuring or fertilizing, a 

 7-year average increase of nearly 4 bushels of corn, more than two 

 bushels of wheat and more than 300 pounds of hay. 



The average Ohio farm contains 88I/2 acres. Half of this area 

 is occupied with cereal crops, about one-third of the cereal acreage 

 being given to corn. There is a live stock population on this aver- 

 age farm, including horses, equivalent to thirteen head of cattle 

 beasts. The average farmer buys fertilizer to the cost of about 

 $8.00 annually. If he kept live stock today on the basis on which his 

 father kept it, up to the seventies, instead of Thirteen head he would 

 have twenty-two head. Instead of having only three and a half 

 tons of manure for each acre in corn, he would have five and a half 



