72 



Phosphoric Acid, the covered lost none, and while the open manure 

 lost 22 Ibs. of Potash, the Potash in the protected remained abso- 

 lutely intact. In India the loss, as I said above, would probably 

 have been far greater proportionately in the manure left open to the 

 weather. As a conclusion to the above quoted experiment, it is 

 pointed out that the best conditions of rotting necessitate (a) 

 protection from rain, sun and wind ; (b) a watertight floor ; (c] that 

 the mass of manure should be kept as compact as possible and 

 there is little doubt that the nearer one gets to these conditions, the 

 more valuable the cattle manure will become. 



At present I see no simple way of retaining the urine, but if 

 this could be done a great point would be gained, as the urine con- 

 tains the most valuable and also the most easily assimilable part of 

 the material voided by the cattle. 



But is Assam manure worth all this trouble ? Is its composition 

 such as to make it worth while to adopt all these means of retaining 

 it ? The following figures show the composition of dung from Indian 

 cows grazing just as Assam cattle do, and where the urine is not 

 retained (Dr. Leather, Agric, Ledger, 1897, No. 8) : 



A certain amount of drying would take place during the rotting 

 of the manure, and hence there would be far less moisture in 

 the finally rotted product than appears from these analyses, but 

 an application often tons of even such moist material as that 

 shown would mean the addition of \% tons of Organic Matter, 

 of 56 Ibs. of Nitrogen, and of 30 to 40 Ibs. of Phosphoric Acid 

 to the resources of each acre of land, an amount by no means 

 to be despised, especially when it is gained at merely the cost of 

 collection. 



It has been again and again suggested that this manure deterior- 

 ates the quality of the tea, even when applied in reasonable quantity. 



