1917] AGRICULTURE IN WAR-TIME. 219 
Our doctrine then is that manure has no substitute—chemical, 
physical or biological—for maintaining and increasing soil fertility. 
The more manure the larger the crops, the larger the crops the more 
live stock that can be kept, the more live stock on the farm the more 
the manure. This means that rational farming is mixed farming and 
that mixed farming means increased crop production. 
We may very briefly consider one or two of the more important 
phases of this manure question as emphasized in our campaign. — First, 
the necessity of sufficient litter in the barn, stable, piggery, etc., to 
absorb and retain all the liquid excreta. This necessity has not been duly 
recognized on many of our farms, and thousands of tons of plant food 
in the most valuable form annually have been allowed to go to waste. 
As regards plant food, especially nitrogen and potash, the liquid is richer 
than the solid excreta and, further, these elements are present in a 
soluble and immediately available condition and hence more valuable 
than those in the solid excreta. Ifthe supply of straw is short, sawdust, 
or air-dried peat or muck should be employed as supplemental litter. 
Peat and muck, of which there are many and large deposits in Canada, 
when air-dried possess a high absorptive capacity and have in themselves 
a manurial value of no mean importance. Hence their use in the way 
indicated increases not only the bulk but the value of the resultant 
manure. They can also be used in the making of valuable com- 
posts. 
Nearly ninety per cent. of the total potash excreted by the animal 
is present in the urine. This fact alone would emphasize the value of 
the liquid excreta to-day, when the product of the Stassfurt mines, 
practically the world’s sole economic supply of potash, is virtually 
unobtainable. Such small quantities of these potash compounds as 
remain on this continent are far too high in price to be used for 
agricultural purposes. 
Then we are advocating the application of the manure to the soil 
while still fresh. This we have proved to be the most economic method 
in general farming, for the rotting of manure even under the best con- 
ditions is inevitably accompanied by some loss of organic matter and 
nitrogen. If the rotting manure is exposed, as in the barnyard or 
unprotected heap in the field, there are further losses by the leaching 
away of the soluble nitrogen and potash and these losses may be enor- 
mous. It is a conservative estimate that the losses from the careless 
management of manure amount to thirty per cent. or more of the initial 
value of the manure. Undoubtedly these losses throughout the Dominion 
represent annually many thousand dollars worth of plant food, needed 
all too badly for our crops. 
