Our Plants. 15 



instead of meat, and in the hog, grease instead of 

 pork. Oil cake, old process, can usually be bought 

 for $5 per ton more than the price of corn. It is 

 worth $13 a ton more as a food for animals, and $14 

 per ton more for manure. Cotton-seed meal shows 

 a still greater difference in value, and is worth about 

 three times as much both as animal and as plant 

 food. 



No one can be found, except perhaps commercial 

 fertilizer agents, but will admit that no commercial 

 fertilizer was ever made that takes the place in the 

 soil of barnyard manure. Says Prof. W. A. At- 

 water : " Stable manure contains all the ingredients 

 of plant food. It is a complete fertilizer. Nor is 

 that all. It improves the texture of the soil; it 

 tends to regulate the supply of moisture, and it 

 helps to set free the stores of inherent plant food 

 which every soil contains. " That is the whole story 

 in a nutshell. And if every farmer would commit 

 it to memory, and do his utmost to increase its 

 manufacture on his own farm, it would save not 

 thousands but millions of dollars that are now yearly 

 spent in the purchase of artificial fertilizers. A 

 ton of oil cake fed and made into manure is worth 

 as a manure, according to the table above, $20.40. 

 Take the same amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 

 and potash in a ton of commercial fertilizer, and it 

 cannot be bought for less than about $30 per ton. 

 In other words, a ton of oil meal is worth as much, 

 ton for ton, as a fertilizer as any commercial brand 

 that can be bought for $30. That amount of money 



