CROPS AND SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



in manufacture, and coarse grains. The demand 

 for meat and milk will lead to careful conversion 

 of material into this form of food, and the animals 

 on eastern farms will increase in number for a 

 time, while sales of grain and vegetables grow 

 greater. The draft upon soil fertility through 

 sales must increase because every pound of ma- 

 terial sold from the farm carries plant-food in it. 

 The Value of Manure. It is not possible to 

 put a commercial valuation upon farm manures 

 that may be a sure guide to any farmer. The 

 value depends upon what the individual can get 

 out of it in crops and improved soil conditions. 

 It is rather idle to say that the annual product 

 of a horse in the form of manure is $30, or more or 

 less, even when an analysis shows that the nitro- 

 gen, phosphoric acid, and potash contained in it 

 are worth that sum when valued at the market 

 prices of those plant constituents. If the total 

 amount of fertility found in the voidings of all 

 the animals of the farm were provided in a pile 

 of commercial fertilizer containing the same 

 amount of each plant constituent, its worth to the 

 farmer would depend upon his ability to convert 

 all that fertility into crops at a profit. There are 

 farmers so situated in respect to soils, crops, and 



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