FERTILIZERS. 41 



various kinds, have furnished nothing that has caused this old time-honored fertilizer to be 

 less valued, or less useful; but since the old source of supply is not at present sufficient for 

 the demands of the soil in crops produced, these furnish important and valuable substitutes, 

 or rather are supplementary aids to that which our forefathers depended upon principally. 



Though there has been a great improvement within a few years with regard to preventing 

 the waste of stable manure among farmers generally, still there is a great loss in this respect 

 on many farms, which a little pains-taking and care would prevent. The soil needs all the 

 manure that can be made upon the farm, both liquid and solid, which, if saved and applied 

 will result in larger crops, and consequently larger profits; hence, a waste of anything that 

 can increase the productiveness of the farm, is a loss in money to the farmer. Among the 

 fifty important theses published by Liebig as axioms of his theory, he says: 



&quot; In the productions of the field, through the harvests, a great quantity of the elements 

 of the soil which have become elements of the plants is taken away and removed from the 

 soil; before the sowing, the soil is richer than after the harvest, the composition of the soil is 

 changed after the harvest. 



The lost fertility is again restored by means of manures, stable manures, excrement 

 of man and animals. 



Stable manure consists of putrefied materials from plants and animals, which contain a 

 certain quantity of soil elements. The excrements of animals and men show the ashes of the 

 food which has been consumed in the bodies of animals and men, and derived from plants 

 tha^ have been harvested from the fields. The urine contains the soil elements of nourish 

 ment soluble in water, the fseces those that are not soluble therein. The manure contains 

 the soil elements of the harvested products of the field.&quot; 



Hon. Alexander Hyde of Mass., says: &quot; We have yet to learn that there is any effec 

 tual substitute for large loads of barn-yard manure and compost. There are two great objec 

 tions to all these concentrated forms of patent fertilizers, even supposing them to be pure 

 and good of their kind. The first is that they generally contain only two or three elements 

 of plant-food, and the second is that they utterly ignore the fact that one great object of 

 putting manure upon the land is the mechanical effect the putting of the soil in such a con 

 dition that it can absorb nutriment from that great reservoir of fertility, the air, and also 

 allow the plant free foraging ground for appropriating to itself all the food that mother earth 

 contains in her bosom.&quot; 



It is estimated that the urine of the horse is of more value as a fertilizer than the solid 

 manure. Though that of the cow is less valuable than the solid, still it is quite a valuable 

 fertilizer, the average weight of that produced by an ordinary cow being about two thousand 

 pounds in one year, and the estimated worth about three dollars. In some portions of Europe 

 a much higher estimate is placed upon its value as a fertilizer. In Flanders, for instance, its 

 estimated value, according to good authority, is about ten dollars per year. According to 

 the analysis of Sprengel, the average urine of the cow contains 92.6 per cent, of water; that 

 of the horse, 94; the sheep, 96; the hog, .92.6; and that of the human species 93.3. The 

 remainder is composed of various salts, and rich vegetable food, very valuable as fertilizers; 

 but the human is much richer in these elements than any other. Like the solid manures, its 

 quantity and value varies greatly, and depends upon the quality and quantity of food and liquid 

 taken into the stomach, etc. By reference to the table of analysis of various manures previously 

 given, the composition of these products of the farm, so often wasted, will be ascertained. 

 Many farmers spend large sums of money yearly in the purchase of guanos and other com 

 mercial fertilizers, which, with a little forethought in the economy of manures produced upon 

 the farm, would not only render that expenditure needless, but prove the farm product more 

 valuable often for agricultural purposes than the former. Since manures lie at the founda 

 tion of all successful husbandry, it becomes a question of importance to the farmer as to 

 how this necessary element can best be utilized and increased ; in other words, how shall the 



