CHAPTER XIII 

 FARM MANURE 



Up to the present time the fertilizers discussed have been 

 commercial products only, and many of them inorganic 

 materials of value only for the plant food which they con- 

 tain. There is one fertilizer, however, which is produced to a 

 greater or less extent on every farm, and which contains 

 not only the three principal plant foods, but which also 

 contains organic matter and bacteria, both of which are 

 valuable to the soil. This material is the excrement of 

 domestic animals mixed with straw or other litter. In this 

 discussion the term farm manure will be used to describe 

 the mixture of solid and liquid excrement of any domestic 

 animal with the litter of whatever character. There is 

 some tendency today to call the mixture of horse excrement 

 and litter, stable manure; and cattle excrement with litter, 

 barnyard manure. The term manure is sometimes applied 

 to any fertilizing material, but this practice is more common 

 in England than in the United States. 



194. Solid Excrement. — The solid excrement, or feces, 

 of an animal are the undigested portions of the food. This 

 material has been rather thoroughly comminuted by the 

 animal in the various processes of mastication, remastication 

 in the case of ruminants, and of churning movements in the 

 stomach and intestines. On account of the more complete 

 mastication and digestion in cattle, the feces of the latter 

 are more finely divided and more compact than those of 

 horses. Although the constituents of the feces have not 

 been digested and absorbed by the animal, more or less 

 decomposition has taken place, particularly in the case of 

 the proteins. Part of this change has occurred in the stomach 

 and intestines due to partial enzyme action, and part in the 

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