THE USE OF STABLE MANURE 



as in most commercial fertilizers, but it helps. 

 The total amount in the 8 tons manure may be 

 sufficient, and the greater part of the total has 

 sufficiently immediate availability, while the ma- 

 nure must undergo decomposition, and some of 

 the nitrogen and potash does not become available 

 within the year. 



Durability of Manure. Tests of the dura- 

 bility of manure in the soil involve some uncer- 

 tain factors, but we are interested only in the ef- 

 fects of applications. These effects may continue 

 for a long term of years, and an example will 

 illustrate. Land may be too infertile to make a 

 good clover sod. If a good dressing of manure be 

 given half the land, affording proper conditions 

 for making a sod, the result will be a heavy growth 

 of clover, while the seeding on the unmanured 

 half will be nearly a failure. If no manure or 

 fertilizer be used in the crop-rotation, the prob- 

 ability is the manured portion of the field will 

 again make a fairly good sod. How much this 

 success may be due to the remains of the manure, 

 and how much is attributable to the effect of the 

 clover and to better bacterial life introduced and 

 favored by the manure, no one knows. Probably 

 the greater part of the benefit comes only indi- 



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