8 DR. WM. SAUNDERS. 



By Mr. Featherston : 



Q. Was that fresh manure applied to the same plot each year ? 

 A. The results I am giving you now are those of the first year after the manure 

 has been discontinued. 



By Mr. Cargill : 



Q. That is with the same crops? 



A. Yes, the same crops ; so that while during the eleven years which rotted 

 manure has been applied to one plot it has averaged 20 bushels 56 pounds; the same 

 land this year without any additional manure gave 23 bushels 40 pounds, and the 

 plot which had been treated for the same period with fresh manure gave an average 

 of 20 bushels 52 pounds per acre, while this year, after the manure had been dis- 

 continued, the yield has been 27 bushels 40 pounds per acre. 



By Mr. Featherston : 



Q. They were about equal up to last year. I mean the plots that were treated 

 with fresh and rotted manure ? 



A. Yes, there was only four pounds per acre difference in favour of the rotted 

 manure up to last year. 



Q. And this year the crop is altogether in favour of the fresh manure ? 



A. Yes, to the extent of four bushels per acre. 



LOSS IN WEIGHT BY ROTTING MANURE. 



By Mr. Lang : 



Q. Was the manure weighed after rotting ? 



A. Yes. 



Q. There would be a great deal more bulk of rotted than fresh ? 



A. I think the same bulk of rotted would be the heavier. 



Q. It would be the bulkier? 



A. I should expect it would pack closer. I have brought before the committee 

 several times the subject of the loss in weight there is in rotting manure. You take 

 2,000 pounds of manure and rot it, and in less than three months you will have less 

 than 1,000 pounds in weight. The point I have been trying to gain information on 

 during these eleven or twelve years has been, what would be the relative value of 

 equal weights of rotted and fresh manure when applied to the more important farm 

 crops. That is the practical point in all these investigations, and to my mind it is 

 a very important one. 



By Mr. Featherston : 



Q. You really lost one-half in the weight of the manure by rotting ? 

 A. Yes, fully that. 



By Mr. Hurley : 



Q. That depends upon whether there is a great deal of straw there ? 



A. With the usual proportion of straw it loses fully one-half. There was an 

 increase last year in the grain in nearly all the wheat plots and an increase also in the 

 straw. While the straw from the rotted manure plot has given 3,544 pounds per 

 acre as the average for the eleven years, last year it gave 3,860 pounds-', and the 

 straw from the fresh manure, which had given an average of 3,598 pounds during 

 the previous eleven years, gave last year 4,550 pounds, the increase in the straw 

 being larger where the fresh manure was used. That is a point in the experiments 

 which has not been mentioned before. 



