456 



ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



Off. Doc. 



ments at your own Station, show that one of the most practical 

 methods, and one which will result in the least loss, particularly in 

 the feeding of steers, is to keep them in box-stalls, so that the 

 manure from day to day may be thoroughly tramped, and enough 

 litter used to absorb all of the liquid portion. This method, as com- 

 pared with the method where the manure is thrown out, though 

 kept under cover, is very much more economical of the fertility con- 

 stituents, the losses in the first case being 5.73 per cent, of nitro- 

 gen^ 8.52 per cent, of phosphoric acid, and 5.57 per cent, of potash. 

 Whereas the losses from merely allowing the manure to lie in the 

 open yard, in heaps, on a clay floor, resulted in a loss of 34.12 per 

 cent, nitrogen, 14.19 per cent, of phosphoric acid and 19. SO per cent, 

 of potash; and as stated in the bulletin, the money value of the fer- 

 tilizer constituents lost by the second as compared with the first 

 method, is equivalent to |2.50 for each steer stabled for six months. 



The chief point in the handling and preservation of manure, there- 

 fore, is to keep it compact and moist, which will prevent destructive 

 fermentation, and cover it, in order to prevent the water passing 

 through it. In many cases, particularly in reasonably level coun- 

 tries, the maximum quantities of the constituents are preserved, if 

 the manures are taken from the yards and spread upon the fields, 

 as immediately the manures are exposed to the air, and cooled, fer- 

 mentation is likely to cease, and such leaching as may take place 

 would be absorbed and fixed by the soil, and thus reducing the pos- 

 sible loss to a minimum. 



M.y purpose, however, is not so much to indicate methods of use 

 aside from the principles involved in the loss of manures, as it is 

 to point out the possibilities of loss, and the relative effect of the 

 nitrogen contained in manures when fresh, both in the solid and 

 solid and liquid combined, as well as the two when leached. In 

 the experiment previously referred to, a comparison was made of 

 the availability of the nitrogen in these different forms, and it was 

 so planned as to make the results secure of practical application 

 in the field; that is the amounts were not excessive, and the crops 

 grown were such as usually receive the manures from the farm yard. 

 The rotation adopted was corn, oats (two years), wheat and timothy, 

 and the results are shown in the following tabulations: 



Fresh Manure. 

 Pounds of Nitrogen Recovered in Every 100 Pounds Applied. 



Corn, 

 Oats, .. 

 "Wheat, 

 Timothy 



2 



3 





1 to 2.96 



2. SO 



—1.30 



