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SOILS AND FERTILIZERS 



RELATION OF FOOD CONSUMED TO MANURE PRODUCED 



183. Bulky and Concentrated Foods. - - The more con- 

 centrated and digestible the food consumed, the more 

 valuable is the manure. Coarse bulky fodders always 

 give a large amount of a poor quality of manure. For 

 example, the manure from animals fed on timothy hay 

 and that from animals fed on clover hay and grain 

 show a wide difference in composition. The dry matter 

 of timothy hay is about 55 per cent digestible. From 

 a ton of timothy hay there is about 790 pounds of dry 

 matter in the manure. The nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 

 and potash in the food consumed are nearly all returned 

 in the manure, except under those conditions which will 

 be noted. The manure from a ton of mixed feed, as 

 clover and bran, is smaller in amount but more concen- 

 trated than that produced from timothy. In a ton of 

 timothy and in a ton of mixed feed (1500 Ibs. clover, 

 500 Ibs. bran) there are present : 



The nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash of these 

 two rations are retained in the animal body in dissimi- 

 lar amounts, 10 per cent more of these elements being 



