HOW TO USE MANURES 85 



Poultry manure ferments very quickly, and, as frequently handled, 

 loses much of its nitrogen in the form of compounds of ammonia, which 

 are rapidly formed and which escape into the air unless means to pre- 

 vent are taken. The mixture of poultry manures with such materials 

 as land-plaster, kainit, acid phosphate, or superphosphate plaster is 

 almost imperative for satisfactory preservation. Often dry earth or 

 powdered dry muck or dry sawdust are also excellent materials to mix 

 with it. If kainit alone is used, poultry manure remains very moist, 

 and will be found difficult of application. As a result of experiments 

 in the Massachusetts Experiment Station, it is concluded that the 

 annual excreta collected beneath the roosts per adult barnyard fowl 

 will amount to about 30 to 45 lb., according to the breed. 



Utilization of Manures 



Rate of production (Roberts and Brooks). 



Extended investigations at the Cornell Experiment Station showed 

 that the following amounts of excrements were produced daily for each 

 1000 lb. of live weight of animal : — 



Lb. 



Sheep 34.1 



Calves 67.8 



Pigs 83.6 



Cows 74.1 



Horses 48.8 



Fowls 39.8 



Total excrements 348.2 



Total manure 388.0 



If straw bedding be added, which is nearly or quite equal to ex- 

 crements in potential manurial value, it will be seen how large a 

 quantity of manure is produced from 6000 lb. of mixed live-stock. 

 A dairy of twenty 1000-lb. cows comfortably fed would produce, 

 in the six winter months, 133^ tons of excrement, or 146| tons of 

 manure. Animals fed a highly nitrogenous ration, say 1:4 (as were the 

 pigs in the above mvestigation), consume large quantities of water, 

 and hence produce large quantities of excrements, especially liquid, 

 the weight of which usually exceeds the weight of food consumed ; 

 while those fed on a wide ration, say 1 : 9, consume comparatively 

 little water, and hence produce less weight of excrements. 



The experienced farmer will know from the results of earlier years 



