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Circular No. 54 (Revision of No. 36). April, 1915. 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL immm STATION 



AMHERST. 



POULTRY MANURES, THEIR TREATMENT AND USE. 

 By William P. Brooks 



The total number of fowls kept in the state is estimated at two 

 and one-half millions. The average night droppings of medium 

 breeds according to determinations made in this station must 

 amount to 40 pounds per fowl per j^ear. On this basis the amount 

 of poultry manure easily collectible from the fowls of the state 

 annually is 50,000 tons. If the plant-food in a ton of average 

 fresh poultry manure be purchased at current prices in fertilizers, 

 the outlay would amount to nearly $7.50. Observations and 

 experiments indicate that as poultry manure is frequently handled 

 it suffers a loss of one-half or more of the nitrogen it contains when 

 voided before it reaches the land. If a loss of one-half correctly 

 represents the average, the total money value of nitrogen annually 

 wasted from our poultry manures must amount to about $160,000. 

 It is the aim of this circular to show how this loss may be prevented. 

 Poultry manures are particularly rich in 

 General character nitrogen and their general characteristics 

 and composition of are such that they readily decompose. As 

 poultry manures, a result of decomposition the manure heats 

 and there is a rapid and large loss of 

 moisture and of ammonia. 



The composition is subject to wide variations, due to some extent 

 to differences in feeding, but in far greater degree to methods of 

 handling and keeping 



The following tables present the results of recent analyses 

 made in our laboratory.* 



Table 1 shows the composition of the material just as it was 

 collected and taken to the laboratory. Table 2 shows the com- 

 position of the different samples of hen manure all reckoned upon 

 the same basis of dry matter in 100 pounds. 



Samples B-1, 2 and 3 are richer than the others in nitrogen, 

 because the fowls received more animal food. Potash varies rela- 

 tively little. Phosphoric acid varies widely and must be greatly 

 affected by the amount of bone in the animal food given to the 

 fowls. 



The comparison between the amounts of nitrogen shown in 

 Table 2 in samples B-1, 2 and 3, and between samples G-1 and 2 

 is particularly instructive. It illustrates the fact that hen manure 

 unmixed with absorbents or chemicals suffers very rapid loss of 

 nitrogen. Sample B-2 differs from B-1 only in the fact that the 

 interval between tthe removal of droppings from beneath the 

 roosts was longer. The season of this experiment was March, 

 and the droppings were frozen a part of the time. During 

 wanner weather the loss must have been yet greater. G-2, though 



* Credit for these analyses is due H. D. Raskins and L. S. Walker, Chemists in the fer- 

 tilizer division of the station. 



