22 FOR BETTER CROPS 



A conservative estimate places the annual production of 

 farm manure in the United States at a billion tons. The actual 

 agricultural value of fresh farm manure containing- both the 

 liquid and solid excrements is not less than $2 a ton, whether 

 the value is measured in terms of plant food elements actually 

 contained in the manure as determined by chemical analysis of 

 the manure and the market values of the elements, or whether 

 the value is measured by the actual increase in crop yields pro- 

 duced by the use of the manure on ordinary long cultivated 

 soils. 



Waste of Farm Manure and Land Ruin — If fresh farm 

 manure is thrown out and exposed to the weather for six months 

 in summer, one-half of its total weight of dry matter is lost, and 

 more than one-half of its value as a fertilizer is lost. In most 

 newer countries there is enormous and shameful if not wicked 

 waste of farm manure. In older countries it is the rule to save 

 all possible farm manure with very great care, although this 

 rule is too frequently broken by the careless, ignorant, or short- 

 sighted. 



As a whole, the unnecessary waste and loss of farm manure 

 which occurs in the United States each year is equal in value to 

 several times the value of all commercial fertilizers used in this 

 country. Sometimes the waste of farm manure and the purchase 

 of commercial fertilizers occur upon the same farm. In such 

 cases the commercial fertilizer used is usually a so-called "com- 

 plete" fertilizer, containing acid phosphate with a trace of 

 nitrogen and potassium too small to add appreciably to its value, 

 and it is commonly applied in amounts which supply less plant 

 food than the crops actually remove, the small amount of soluble 

 plant food applied being supplemented by that which the soil 

 would naturally give up, together with what can be forced from, 

 the soil by the stimulating action of the soluble corrosive acid 

 salts and manufactured land-plaster contained in such fertilizers. 



One of the most common commercial fertilizers used in the 

 United States contains the equivalent of two per cent of am- 

 monia, eight per cent of falsely so-called "phosphoric acid," and 

 two per cent of potash, corresponding to less than four pounds 

 of nitrogen, seven pounds of phosphorus, and less than four 

 pounds of potassium in 200 pounds, the most common applica- 

 tion per acre; whereas a 100-bushel crop of corn removes from 

 the soil not four, but 150 pounds of nitrogen, not seven but 

 twenty-three pounds of phosphorus, and not four but seventy- 

 five pounds of potassium. 



Saving Farm Manure — In order to retain the full amount 

 and full value of farm manure, it should be removed directly 

 from the stall or covered feed lot and spread at once upon the 

 land. Where the winters are moderately cold and free from. 



