136 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



used, it is most profitable to apply the manure to crops grown 

 in the rotation, such as maize, and to apply the commercial 

 fertilizers directly to the wheat crop. 



Manure. It is claimed that the soils of China have been 

 in continuous cultivation for more than 4,000 years without 

 falling off in productiveness, and that the continued soil fer- 

 tility is due to the utilization of all animal manures and of 

 sewage. During the eleventh century in France, stable ma- 

 nure was unknown as a fertilizer, though flocks of sheep were 

 used for this purpose. Stable manures were utilized in the 

 medieval husbandry of England, and they have been used to 

 great advantage in France and Germany for over a century. 



In America manure has always been utilized as a fertilizer 

 by progressive farmers, but it has also been looked upon as 

 a farm nuisance. It has been charged with producing dog 

 fennel and various other weeds, and with "poisoning" the 

 soil. In parts of Oregon and South Dakota it has been burned, 

 sometimes for fuel. It has been hauled into ravines in Cali- 

 fornia, into the creek in Oklahoma, into a hole in the ground 

 or to the side of the field in Kansas, to the roadside in Mis- 

 souri, to great piles in North Dakota and Idaho, and to the 

 river in the Mohawk valley. 1 It is estimated that the farmers 

 of the United States annually lose over $7,000,000 by per- 

 mitting barnyard manure to go to waste. As the ferti- 

 lizing value of the manure annually produced by the farm ani- 

 mals of the United States is calculated at over two billion 

 dollars, it must, however, be very generally utilized, a fact 

 which does not excuse the foolish and useless waste. The fer- 

 tilizing value of the average amount produced yearly is esti- 

 mated for each horse at $27, for each head of cattle $19, for 

 each hog $12, and for each sheep $2. The amounts of ferti- 

 lizing constituents in the manure stand in direct relation to 

 those in the food of the animal, and have a ratio to them 

 varying in value from one-half to unity. 



Experiments have shown that equal weights of fresh and of 

 rotted manure have equal crop-producing powers. As 60 per 

 cent of the weight is lost in the rotting process, manure should 

 be used in fresh condition. ' ' Barnyard manure contains all the 



1 Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr., 1902, p. 529; Industrial Commission 

 J0:clxxxviii. ( 



