302 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub Doc. 



are at their business for what there is in it, and for all that 

 hard, persistent thinking and careful practice can make it, 

 who unknowingly waste barnyard manure, here is an oppor- 

 tunity to make a saving equal to the difference between 

 success and failure ; for that, frequently, equals the value of 

 the manure wasted. This is to be secured by following the 

 practice approved by the results of hundreds of experi- 

 ments made by careful workers. In the succeeding pages 

 these results are summarized. We will consider, briefly : — 



I. What barnyard manure is made of. 



II. How it compares with other manures. 



III. How to make it. 



IV. How to use it. 



I. — What Barnyard Manure is made of. 

 Barnyard manure consists of the dung and urine of horses, 

 cows, pigs, sheep and winged animals, sometimes of human 

 beings, and "litter" mixed in all imaginable proportions 

 with more or less of "fixers "and preservatives. The do- 

 mestic animals feed chiefly on vegetable material. This is 

 taken partly from the field direct, in the form of grain, hay, 

 straw, roots, etc., and partly as by-products from various 

 factories, like bran, gluten meal, oil cakes, brewers' grains, 

 pomace, etc. When any of this material is fed, about one- 

 half of its organic portion, containing the nitrogen, is di- 

 gested, and serves as food for the animal. It is eventually 

 either dissipated into the air through the breath, in the form 

 of carbonic acid gas and water, or is deposited as muscle and 

 fat, hair, wool or milk, or is transformed into work in the 

 case of draught animals. The other half, the undigested 

 portion, goes through the organism, and, while most of it 

 falls as dung, a considerable portion of the nitrogen passes 

 through the kidneys into the urine. The mineral or ash con- 

 stituents of the food, including potash and j^hosjjhoric acid, 

 also go partly into the digested portion, partly into the dung 

 and partly into the urine. The dung and urine of work 

 animals contains all of the nitrogen, potash and phosphoric 

 acid taken in the food ; while in young, fattening or milk 

 animals, portions of these go into bone, flesh and milk. 



