A NATIONAL LOSS! 



It is one thing to stimulate the maximum production 

 of essential Food crops, but if the Nation is to receive full 

 benefit, it is, at the same time, absolutely necessary to 

 prevent waste in any shape or form. Some of the waste is 

 quite unpardonable and ought to be prevented, if British 

 Agriculture is to hold its own among the nations. The 

 loss to the Nation may actually be in food crops, or it may be 

 loss of manure which would assist in producing larger crops, 

 or it may possibly be through the lack of organization (e.g., 

 local slaughter houses, Factories, &c.) to deal with all kinds 

 of meat and crops in the district in which they are produced, 

 thus causing a great waste of energy in " shipping " 

 commodities about from one market to another, before they 

 reach the consumer. 



Anyhow for this purpose, it will be quite sufficient to refer 

 very briefly to a few cases of waste, which, if converted into 

 terms of " Hard Cash," would amount in the aggregate for 

 Great Britain to no less than millions of pounds each year. 



WASTE OF MANURE. 



In the manuring of Farm crops, the manurial consti- 

 tuent which is the most expensive to buy, and has usually 

 the most marked effect on the growth of crops is that of 

 nitrogen. Millions of pounds are spent each year in the 

 United Kingdom on nitrogenous manures such as, nitrate of 

 soda, sulphate of ammonia, &c., in order to stimulate the 

 growth of crops ; yet, all the time, we are allowing very 

 considerable quantities of Nitrogen produced on the farm 

 to run to Waste. The amount of loss experienced by the 

 leaching effects of rain on Farmyard Manure in heaps 

 or open yards on most farms is so considerable, that one often 

 wonders how the matter can apparently be taken so light 

 heartedly. 



In the R.A.S.E. Journal for 1916, Dr. Russell gives- 

 particulars of an experiment carried out at Woking from 

 Nov. 1st, 1913 to May 20th, 1914, where Farmyard manure 

 Was stored in two ways during this period, viz : one heap irt 

 a covered shed, and the other in the open. The former lost 



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