24 AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS 



If we wish to keep up the fertility of our lands, we 

 should not allow anything to be lost from our farms. All 

 the manures, straw, roots, stubble, healthy vines in fact 

 everything decomposable, should be plowed under or used 

 as a top dressing. Especial care should be taken in stor- 

 ing manure. It should be carefully protected from sun 

 and rain. If a farmer has no shed under which to keep 

 his manure, he should scatter the manure on his fields 

 as fast as it is made. 



He should understand also that liquid manure is of more 

 value than solid, because that important plant food, nitro- 

 gen, is found almost wholly in the liquid portion. Some 

 of the phosphoric acid and considerable amounts of the 

 potash are also found in the liquid manure. Hence econ- 

 omy requires that none of this escape either by leakage or 

 by fermentation in the stables. Sometimes one can detect 

 the smell of ammonia in the stable. This ammonia is formed 

 by the decomposition of the liquid manure, and its loss 

 should be checked by sprinkling some gypsum (land plaster) 

 or muck over the stable floor. 



On many farms it is desirable to buy fertilizers to sup- 

 plement the manure made upon the farm. In this case 

 it is helpful to understand the composition, source, and 

 availability of the various substances composing commercial 

 fertilizers. The three most valuable things in commercial 

 fertilizers are nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid. 



The nitrogen is obtained from (i) nitrate of soda mined 

 in Chile, from (2) ammonium sulphate a by-product of the 

 gas works, from (3) dried blood and other by-products of 

 the slaughter-houses, and from (4) cotton-seed meal. Nitrate 

 of soda is soluble in water and may therefore be washed away 



