102. ••; . ^ '-^Practical Farming 

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The manure from well-fed animals is of far more value 

 than that from ill-fed ones. In fact, cattle that are merely 

 kept alive all winter on straw and corn shucks make a 

 manure that has very little value as compared with that 

 from animals that have been fed a well-balanced ration in 

 which there is an abundance of the nitrogenous or protein 

 foods. You cannot get something out of nothing, and 

 while manure from straw-fed stock may have some value 

 it will still be merely straw and of no more value than the 

 materials the stock had to make it of. 



While freshly made manure may have little plant food 

 that is at once available as compared with the concen- 

 trated and soluble plant food in commercial fertilizers, it 

 has an added value which the fertilizers lack. This is the 

 large amount of organic vegetable matter associated with 

 the manure. This, when buried in the soil, oxidizes 

 slowly and adds the black humus to the soil, and not only 

 releases plant food but has a further important effect in 

 making the soil more retentive of moisture. Hence the 

 longer continued effect of an application of manure over 

 one of readily available fertilizers. 



While keeping manures in piles always involves some 

 loss, it is often desirable to partially rot it, especially for 

 garden purposes. This can be best accompUshed by 

 pihng the manure in broad flat heaps with layers of dry 

 muck or woods-earth, and chopping this down frequently 

 and repihng in the same flat heaps. Then, if convenient 

 to water, sprinkle it well all over, and make a trench 

 around the compost pile to catch the leachings to be 

 returned to the heap. But for the ordinary farm crops it 

 is never economical to go to the heavy labor of composting 



