MIXED FERTILIZERS 



53 



by a pump of the disc and chain type, and allowed to 

 flow over the dry upper surface of the manure heap. By 

 persistently pumping the drainage, it evaporates and becomes 

 concentrated, and the proportion of liquor in the pit becomes 

 diminished. Where the manure is stored on the field the 

 most practicable method is to remove the surface of the 

 ground, to break up the subsoil, to put the manure on top, 

 to use the earth that has been dug out as a cover for the 

 manure heap, and, when ready, to spread all the manure and 

 all the broken subsoil on the field. By such means the 

 loss by drainage can be reduced to a small figure. The 

 general analysis of farmyard manure, kept under reasonable 

 but not ideal conditions, is shown in Table 12, which gives 

 the probable composition of any sample taken at random, 

 calculated from several analyses. 



TABLE 12. FARMYARD MANURE. 



Moisture 

 Organic matter 

 Mineral matter 

 Nitrogen non-albuminoid 

 Nitrogen total . . 

 Potash 

 Phosphoric acid 



Probable sample. 



75-3 to 80-9 

 14-2 to 18-8 

 0'43 to 5-9 

 0-15 to 0-27 

 0-54 to 0-72 

 0-52 to 0-68 

 0-26 to 0-34 



In attempting to assess the money value of any such 

 manure by the same standard as is adopted for chemical ferti- 

 lizers one will see that the phosphorus is of little consequence, 

 and in any normal circumstance the price would chiefly 

 depend upon the nitrogen ; but from a practical point of 

 view the value of the manure will depend rather upon its 

 physical properties in the soil, upon its percentage of potash, 

 and upon its encouragement of the life of soil organisms. 



It will be quite impracticable to have every fertilizer 

 employed on the farm a quick-acting one. Some of the 

 ingredients of any fertilizer must be of slow action to provide 

 for the future. Farmyard manure should, therefore, be 

 considered not in opposition to chemical fertilizers, but in 



