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opportunity to make a saving equal to the difference between suc- 

 cess 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 experiments made by care- 

 ful workers. In the succeeding pages these results are summar- 

 ized. 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 domestic 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 

 digested, 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 constituents of the food, including potash and 

 phosphoric 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. 



This mixture of dung and urine is collected in tanks for several 

 months in some countries, as, for example, in Holland and Swit- 

 zerland, without further admixture. It is then called Guile. It 

 undergoes a peculiar fermentation, and is spread as a liquid over 

 the fields. In most countries, however, as with us, the better 

 way is followed, of using litter for the double purpose of making 

 confined animals clean and comfortable, and of absorbing the 

 liquid portion. This litter consists of almost any light, dry, waste 

 material, such as straw, leaves, sawdust, land plaster or dry earth. 



