CHAPTER IX 



MANURE SPREADERS 



266. Manure as a fertilizer. Although the manure 

 spreader has been a practical machine for some time, it 

 is only recently that its use has become general. This is 

 especially true in the Middle West, where for a long time 

 the farmer did not realize the need of applying manure, 

 owing to the stored fertility in the soil when the native 

 sod was broken, and cultivated crops grown for the first 

 time. It has been proved that manure has many advan- 

 tages over commercial fertilizer for restoring productive- 

 ness to the land after cropping. It has been estimated 

 by experts of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture that the value of the fertilizing constituents of the 

 manure produced annually by a horse is $27, by each 

 head of cattle $19, by each hog $12. The value of the 

 manure a ton was also estimated at $2 to $7. It is not 

 known from what data these estimates were made. The 

 value of manure as a fertilizer does not depend solely 

 upon the fact that it adds plant food to the soil, but its 

 action renders many of the materials in the soil available 

 and improves the physical condition of the soil. 



267. Utility of the manure spreader. As it was with 

 the introduction of all other machines which have dis- 

 placed hand methods, there is much discussion for and 

 against the use of the manure spreader. The greatest 

 advantage in the use of the manure spreader lies in its 

 ability to distribute the manure economically. Experi- 

 ment has shown that, in some cases at least, as good 



