SO FOR BETTER CROPS IN THE SOUTH 



pounds of potassium in 200 pounds, the most common applica- 

 tion per acre; whereas a 100-bushel crop of corn removes from 

 the soil not four, but 150 pounds of nitrogen, not seven but 

 twenty-three pounds of phosphorus, and not four but seventy- 

 five pounds of potassium. 



Saving Farm Manure — In order to retain the full amount 

 and full value of farm manure, it should be removed directly 

 from the stall or covered feed lot and spread at once upon the 

 land. Where the winters are moderately cold and free from 

 heavy rains there is little loss if the manure is allowed to accumu- 

 late during such weather in a small, uncovered feed lot, pro- 

 vided it is hauled out and spread upon the land in the early 

 spring. Manure may be allowed to accumulate without much 

 loss in deep stalls for several weeks if plenty of absorbent bed- 

 ding is used, and then it may be hauled from the stall directly 

 to the field and spread. 



It should be the rule never to handle manure more than 

 once. When taken from the stable or feeding shed it should be 

 at once loaded onto the spreader and hauled to the field. If 

 manure is produced at the rate of two loads or more a week, the 

 convenience and importance of taking this manure directly 

 from the stable and spreading it at once upon the field will cer- 

 tainly justify providing a manure spreader or special wagon to 

 be used solely for this purpose. 



Increasing the Value of Farm Manure — While ordinary 

 fresh farm manure is worth $2 a ton for use on ordinary soils, its 

 value can easily be increased to $3 a ton net, by replacing in 

 liberal amounts of low-priced, very finely ground, natural rock 

 phosphate, the element phosphorus, which the animals have 

 extracted from the feed and used in making bone, thus leaving 

 the manure poor in phosphorus as compared with the crops 

 grown and fed. 



It should be remembered that practically all potassium con- 

 tained in the feed is returned in the liquid arid solid excrements 

 and that the nitrogen, which is in part retained by the animal 

 and in part returned in the manure, can be fully maintained by 

 supplementing the farm manure with clover grown in the crop 

 rotations and plowed under. 



By far the most complete and valuable work ever reported 

 upon the subject of increasing the value of farm manure by the 

 addition of natural rock phosphate has been done by the Ohio 

 agricultural experiment station under the direction of Professor 

 Charles E. Thorne in an extensive and most trustworthy series 

 of experiments extending over a period of thirteen years. 



As a rule for use on land which is deficient in phosphorus, 

 rock phosphate should be mixed with average manure in such 

 proportions that at least 250 pounds of rock phosphate per acre 



