140 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



The amount of manure produced must be considered 

 in planning a cropping system for a farm. If one wishes 

 to manure one-fifth of the land every year with 10 tons 

 per acre, there would have to be provided two tons per 

 year for each acre of the farm. This would require about 

 one cow or horse, or equivalent, for each six acres of land. 

 Enough more stock would have to be kept to make up 

 for time on the pasture, provided the pasture were not 

 a part of the crop-rotation. 



144. Losses of Manure. The great sources of loss of 

 manure are the loss of the liquid portion,- the leaching 

 out of the fertility by rains, and fermentation. 



The liquid portion of manure is much more valuable 

 per ton than is the solid portion, as it contains over twice 

 as much nitrogen and most of the potash. The relative 

 composition of the solid and the liquid portions is as 

 follows: 1 



With cows, over one-fourth of the total excrement is 

 liquid. This is worth about as much as the solid manure. 

 Yet many farmers have arranged their barns so as to 

 drain off the liquid portion. In this way it is easy to lose 

 fertilizing material that would cost $10 to $15 per year 



1 Experiment Station Record V. p. 142. 



