50 AGRICULTURE FOR COMMON SCHOOLS 



othy hay, straw, corn stover or other feeds not rich in nitro- 

 gen and to which little or no grain has been added. 



(d) Animals poor in flesh do not make valuable manure, 

 because they remove much of the plant food that is in the 

 food to build up their own bodies. The making of bone and 

 lean meat and blood requires much nitrogen, phosphoric acid 

 and potash, but the making of fat does not require very much 

 of any of these elements. 



(e) The bedding used in the stable should be a kind that 

 will absorb the liquid excrement readily. The liquid excre- 

 ment contains a large per cent, of the nitrogen and potash 

 that was in the feed. These are valuable plant foods and 

 should be saved. Straw is the most common bedding used 

 and absorbs liquids fairly well. Shredded corn stover that 

 has been left uneaten by the animals makes an excellent bed- 

 ding. It absorbs better than straw. Sawdust is a good 

 absorbent, but it is injurious to the land and should not be 

 used for bedding. 



2. Saving the Manure. — The manure on most farms is not 

 saved carefully. Often animals are confined in yards and no 

 effort at all is made to save the droppings, and the rains wash 

 them away, or they are tramped into the mud. Very often 

 when stables are cleaned out the manure is thrown under 

 the eaves of the barn or shed and the rain from the 

 roof soon saturates the pile and a dark liquid soon be- 

 gins to run away from it. This contains much plant food in 

 the form of nitrogen and potash and is usually lost by draining 

 into a stream or soaking into the ground where no crop is 

 raised. Then again, it often happens that manure is thrown 

 into large piles or boxes where it lies exposed to rain and 

 weather for several months. Under such conditions it gets 



