CROPS AND SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



leaching in the barnyard carries away value 

 more rapidly than decrease in volume of manure 

 indicates. The widely demonstrated facts do not 

 have effective acceptance, and enormous loss 

 continues. 



Thome found that manure placed in flat piles 

 in the barnyard in January, and allowed to lie 

 until April, lost one third of its value. Under 

 the conditions prevailing on many farms the loss 

 suffered by exposure of manure is far greater. 



Caring for Liquid Manure. If all manure 

 were in solids, one great difficulty in caring for it 

 would not exist. The nitrogen is the most valu- 

 able element in manure, and two fifths of all of 

 it in horse manure is found in the liquid. In the 

 case of cow manure, over one half of the nitrogen 

 is found in the liquid. More than this, a pound 

 of nitrogen in the liquid has greater value than a 

 pound in the solid because of its nearly immediate 

 availability. There is only one good way of car- 

 ing for the liquids, and that is by use of absorb- 

 ents on tight floors or in tight gutters. American 

 farmers find cisterns and similar devices nuisances. 

 The first consideration is to make the floor water- 

 tight, and clay will not do this. The virtues of 

 puddled clay have had many advocates, but ex- 



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