COMPOSITION OF MANURES 91 



The value is figured at the price agreed upon by eastern chem- 

 ists as fair value for the ingredients as used in artificial fertilizers. 



Value per ton is also conditioned upon the percentage of water 

 in the manure. Hen manure has much less water even in a fresh 

 state than that of cattle, and air-dried hen manure, free from earth, 

 etc., is sometimes worth as much as $10 per ton, providing the hens 

 are well fed. In this state air-dried sheep manure in large corral 

 deposits in Fresno county has been found by analyses at the Uni- 

 versity of California to have this composition and value: 



Per cent. 



Nitrogen 2.32 



Potash 2.90 



Phosphoric Acid 2.88 



The material had only twenty-eight per cent of water and its 

 value calculated at the agreed price of its ingredients is $10.95 per 

 ton. Even when calculated at the same per cent of water, the Cali- 

 fornia corral deposit has much higher value than the eastern sheep 

 manure, because it has suffered less from leaching. 



Garden Use of Concentrated Manures. Hen, sheep and hog 

 manure are very much richer, as shown, than the same bulk of cow 

 or horse manure. The safest way to use them is by composting 

 with other materials, as will be described presently, but if it is de- 

 sirable to use them alone, care should be taken in the distribution, 

 as already stated. This can be assured by thoroughly mixing these 

 manures with at least equal bulks of fine earth, when they will soon 

 be reduced into a fairly dry and powdery state in which they may 

 be readily spread broadcast on the land, or be sown by the drill, and 

 be found a useful general manure for every kind of garden produce, 

 if it is evenly scattered and not allowed to collect around the roots 

 of single plants. A mixture which is good for all garden purposes 

 can be made with 1,000 Ibs. of chicken manure, 150 Ibs. nitrate of 

 soda, 600 Ibs. fine bone meal, and 250 Ibs. muriate of potash. Poul- 

 try manure should not be mixed with wood ashes. 



Deterioration of Manures. There are two ways by which 

 animal manures lose valuable constituents : first, the escape of nitro- 

 gen by fermentation which sets free this element chiefly in the form 

 of ammonia; second, the leaching out of soluble matters by ex- 

 posure of the mass to copious rains. Both of these losses^ are prac- 

 tically prevented by drying of the manure. The local demonstration 



