572 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



WASTES AND WANTS OF THE FARM. 



HOW to make business pay, or in other words, how to secure the largest profits from 

 the money, labor, and time invested, is the study and aim of all business men. This 

 is no less the case with the farmer, than with those engaged in other avocations. In 

 fact, we believe farmers, as a general rule, labor harder to secure their profits than any other 

 class. Many of them, occupying small farms, too often find at the close of the year that with 

 all their toil, working early and late, they have fallen short of their expectations in results, 

 and beyond defraying the common expenses of the farm and household, financially they are 

 but little, if any, in advance of the previous year. Such a result, we believe, is not the fault 

 of the business, but of the one who manages or mismanages it, and that when properly con 

 ducted, farming may be made as profitable an avocation as any other. 



Such failures may be attributed largely to the wastes and wants of the farm, and should 

 this subject receive the consideration which its importance demands, we believe much larger 

 profits could be secured with less labor, by the majority of farmers, than are now realized by 

 the present common practice. 



Waste of Manure, etc. Farmers are proverbially economical in the use of money. 

 They labor hard for it, and hence realize its value, and are loth to part with it. This economy 

 in the spending of money is often carried so far that it borders upon penuriousness, and we 

 frequently hear it remarked, that farmers, as a class, are exacting and close-calculating in 

 their dealings with others. No doubt this accusation is often unjustly founded, but however 

 this may be, there are many things in respect to which the average farmer is too prodigal, 

 the saving of which he does not seem to realize will aid very materially in augmenting the 

 profits of the farm, and which, if rightly appropriated, is equivalent to money earned; since 

 the resources of the farm will thereby be increased without additional outlay. 



One of the common wastes of the farm is that of manure. The great need of the farms 

 in the older-settled portions of the country is more manure, and the problem for the farmers 

 of those sections generally to solve, is how to obtain an adequate supply. 



Owing to the lack of a sufficient amount of farm manure, many farmers are obliged to 

 depend upon superphosphates and other commercial fertilizers to supplement the quantity 

 required, the expense of which reduces largely the profits resulting from the crops. Although 

 this lack of manure is generally admitted, yet, inconsistent as it may seem, there are very few 

 farmers but that permit a large proportion of the manure made by the farm stock to be 

 wasted. It is a common practice with farmers to permit the liquid manure to be lost. How 

 few barns in the country are provided with means for utilizing this valuable fertilizer! 

 And yet it is claimed by chemists, that the liquid manure of cattle is of as much value as 

 the solid. 



Prof. Dana states that &quot;The quantity of liquid manure produced by one cow annually is 

 equal to fertilizing one and a quarter acres of ground, producing effects as durable as do the 

 solid evacuations. A cord of loam saturated with urine is equal to a cord of the best rotted 

 manure. * * * If the liquid and solid evacuations, including the litter, are kept separate, and 

 the liquid is soaked up by the loam, it has been found they will manure land in proportion, 

 by bulk, of seven liquid to six solid, while their actual value is as two to one.&quot; 



Other noted authorities might be cited, but we have treated of this subject so thoroughly 

 in connection with fertilizers, that a repetition is not necessary here. 



The fact has been sufficiently established by experiment and chemical analysis, from the 

 best authorities, that the farmer who makes no provision for saving the liquid manure made 

 by his stock loses fully one-half the value of the manure they supply, while he who utilizes 

 both the liquid and solid excrement, has, therefore, double the amount of manure every year 

 than he otherwise would have. 



