FOR BETTER CROPS IN THE.SOUTH 29 



the manure and the market values of the elements, or whether 

 the value is measured by the actual increase in crop yields pro- 

 duced by the use of the manure on ordinary long cultivated 

 soils. 



Waste of Farm Manure and Land Ruin — If fresh farm 

 manure is thrown out and exposed to the weather for six months 

 in summer, one-half of its total weight of dry matter is lost, and 

 more than one-half of its value as a fertilizer is lost. In most 

 newer countries there is enormous and shameful if not wicked 

 waste of farm manure. In older countries it is the rule to save 

 all possible farm manure with very great care, although this 

 rule is too frequently broken by the careless, ignorant, or short- 

 sighted. 



As a whole, the unnecessary waste and loss of farm manure 

 which occurs in the United States each year is equal in value to 



A uniform application of manure insures better returns 



several times the value of all commercial fertilizers used in this 

 country. Sometimes the waste of farm manure and the purchase 

 of commercial fertilizers occur upon the same farm. In such 

 cases the commercial fertilizer used is usually a so-called "com- 

 plete" fertilizer, containing acid phosphate with a trace of 

 nitrogen and potassium too small to add appreciably to its value, 

 and it is commonly applied in amounts which supply less plant 

 food than the crops actually remove, the small amount of soluble 

 plant food applied being supplemented by that which the soil 

 would naturally give up, together with what can be forced from 

 the soil by the stimulating action of the soluble corrosive acid 

 salts and manufactured land-plaster contained in such fertilizers. 

 One of the most common commercial fertilizers used in the 

 United States contains the equivalent of two per cent of am- 

 monia, eight per cent of falsely so-called "phosphoric acid," and 

 two per cent of potash, corresponding to less than four pounds 

 of nitrogen, seven pounds of phosphorus, and less than four 



