136 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



lizers, pay much more for the plant-food in manure than 

 they have to pay for it in the fertilizers. They feel that 

 they must have the manure, even if it is more expen- 

 sive. Sometimes they dispense with manure when they 

 can plow under clover. 



The price at which manure can be purchased is quite 

 variable. In parts of the West a man is paid to haul it 

 away to get rid of it. Farmers in New Jersey purchase it 

 by the carload from Philadelphia and New York at about 

 $2.50 per ton, and there is still the expense of hauling to 

 the farms. In many of the smaller cities of the East, it 

 can be had for the hauling, in others, it must be paid for. 



How much manure is worth on a given farm depends 

 on how much it is needed. It may be worth more or less 

 than the fertility in it would cost in fertilizers. 



Seventy-nine analyses of manure and bedding at the 

 Massachusetts Experiment Station gave an average of 

 66 per cent water, 0.45 per cent nitrogen, 0.33 per cent 

 phosphoric acid, 0.56 per cent potash. This is practically 

 one-half per cent of nitrogen and potash, and one-third 

 per cent phosphoric acid. The plant-food in a ton of such 

 manure would cost about $2.83 (4X+J+i). 

 ^ At the Cornell Experiment Station, each ton of manure 

 gave $2.58 worth of hay and oats in three years above 

 the value from the untreated land. In one three-year rota- 

 tion of wheat, clover, potatoes in Ohio, each ton of ma- 

 nure gave $2.96 worth of increased crops. In each case, 

 there will be a considerable benefit from the manure on 

 later crops, as the good effects of manure are not all 

 gone in three years. 



Experiments at Rothamsted, England, during fifty 



