NITROGEN A VALUABLE ELEMENT. 135 



seepage during the experiments to have paid half the cost of 

 cementing the floor. 



Losses through weathering and leaching are also common and 

 should be avoided. Experiments at the same station, during 12 

 years show that fresh manure produced increase in crop yields 

 over yard manure amounting to about one-fourth of the total 

 value of the manure. 



Roberts, compiling data from various sources, gives the value 

 of manure produced under average conditions by a horse as 

 $24.06 a year and that of a cow as $32.25 a year, or $2.49^ and 

 $2.43 a ton respectively. This value is surely high enough to 

 justify reasonable protection and care. 



Nitrogen is manure's most valuable element measured by the 

 cost of replacing it in commercial fertilizer. It heats when lying 

 in heaps and the strong ammonia odor, due to the combination of 

 the nitrogen in the manure and the hydrogen of the moisture of 

 the heap, indicates that in time all the nitrogen will escape in the 

 form of ammonia gas. It is said that a ton of manure contains 

 about 10 pounds of nitrogen, worth $1.50 or $2.00, so that this 

 loss of nitrogen is a serious one. 



An average dairy cow of 1,000 pounds weight, properly fed, 

 will throw off $13.00 worth of nitrogen and potash a year in her 

 urine. A horse will throw off $18.00 worth. Urine has a greater 

 fertilizing value than manure, and together they become ideal. 



Every farmer can have his own* manure factory by keeping 

 live stock. Naturally, the more live stock the farm can keep, the 

 more manure he will have for returning to the soil. 



The silo here comes in as a material aid, and with its adop- 

 tion it is possible to keep at least twice as much live stock on a 

 given area of land. Pasturing cattle is becoming too expensive 

 a method. High priced lands can be used to better advantage 

 by growing the feeding crop and siloing it, without any waste, to 

 be preserved and fed fresh and green the year around. This 

 method, as we have said, will insure the maximum supply of 

 splendid fertilizing material. 



But the silo does more it converts the farm into a factory 

 as it were i. e., it will become a creator of a finished or more 

 nearly finished product instead of being the producer of a mere 



