No. 4.] NITROGEN AND FERTILITY. 198 



later on I listened to Professor Sanborn up in New Hamp- 

 shire, who says we must spread on our manure any time we 

 have time, in which case we don't lose any of it. Then it 

 seems there is another matter. I thought I was doing a 

 fine thing when I mixed my horse manure with the other 

 manure, and let it go down into the barn cellar. I have 

 even bought quite a good deal of horse manure and put it 

 in, and put the hogs on it. Now, that is all wrong. 



Dr. Woods. Perhaps not. While the addition of the 

 horse manure will tend to increase the nitrification, your 

 hogs are keeping it compact, so you haven't nearly the 

 danger of loss that you have under other conditions, al- 

 though there will be some loss in connection Avith it. We 

 can't handle manure in any way without meeting some loss, 

 and every man has got to work the matter out to fit his 

 own individual situation. Very likely you are so situated 

 that that particular thing you have been doing has been the 

 best thing to do. It is very possible, if you are hiring men 

 by the year and own the teams, that you can better aiford 

 to do that, even at the loss of some of the nitrogen. 

 That is a question of dollars and cents, and it is for each 

 man to make his own decision. All the chemist and the 

 bacteriologist can tell you are the changes that take place, 

 and then you must decide for yourself what you will do in 

 your own particular case. 



Question. If it freezes up there is no loss ? 



Dr. Woods. The loss would be greatly reduced from 

 what it would be if we had an open winter. When I 

 began experiment station work, twenty-five years ago, I 

 thought I understood this theory of chemical handling of 

 fertilizers and crops. It figured right out, and I had no 

 hesitancy in answering questions. If a man sent me the 

 ration that he was feeding, I would tell him whether it was 

 a good or bad one, and how to correct it. In some things 

 you can do that ; but each man has got to find out from his 

 own experience. It is probably true that we do not know 

 as much now as we knew positively twenty-five years ago. 

 But don't forget, gentlemen, that we are making enormous 

 advances, because it is a great deal better not to know 



