CHAPTER XII 



FARMYARD MANURE 



Composition of Animal Excretions. Litter. Changes taking place 

 during the Making and Storage of Manure. Losses of 

 Nitrogen in Manure-making — Unavoidable or due to 

 wasteful Methods. Composition of Farmyard Manure from 

 various Sources. Care of Farmyard Manure. Farmyard 

 Manure as a Fertiliser. Value of Farmyard Manure. Valua- 

 tion of Manure Residues derived from the Consumption of 

 Purchased Feeding Stuffs. Cost of Farmyard Manure. 



In the preceding chapter we have learned that the food 

 of animals contains various substances which are also 

 food for plants. The fat, the fibre, and the carbo- 

 hydrates in a feeding stuff are useless, because being 

 only compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, they 

 are as far as they are digested resolved into carbon 

 dioxide and water, and even their indigestible portions 

 when they reach the soil cannot feed the plant. The 

 nitrogen, however, that the feeding stuff contains is of 

 the first importance to the plant, and the phosphoric 

 acid and the potash which are also present in the ash 

 are equally indispensable elements of the plant food. 

 We have further learnt that the animal only retains in 

 its body a comparatively small proportion of the 

 nitrogen and other valuable constituents of the food. 

 The actual proportion retained depends upon the age 

 of the animal ; a young animal putting on flesh, or a 

 cow in full milk, take from the food more of the nitrogen 



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