FARMYARD MANURE 177 



may be kept on some such daily ration as 

 this : cwt. roots, 8 Ib. mixed cake and 

 meal, and a stone of hay or straw. The 

 percentage of dry matter in the roots may 

 be taken as 10, while the corresponding 

 figure for the other food may be put at 86. 

 On this basis it will be found that the animal 

 daily consumes about 24 Ib. of absolutely dry 

 food, and will, in addition, require daily at 

 least 6 Ib. of straw, calculated dry, as litter. 

 Of the 24 Ib. of dry matter consumed as 

 food about one-half will reappear in the 

 dung and urine, while the whole of the 

 litter will be converted into the farmyard 

 manure. We have thus to deal with 18 Ib. 

 of perfectly dry substance that daily finds 

 its way to the manure heap. If ordinary 

 farmyard manure contains 75 per cent, of 

 water, we must multiply the 18 by 4 in 

 order to get the daily output of farmyard 

 manure, in the condition in which we find 

 it in the manure heap. Assuming that 

 the farm animals are under cover for six 

 months of the year, this means that an 

 ordinary well-grown cow or steer will con- 

 tribute between 5 and 6 tons of manure 

 to the general supply. During the time of 

 storage, which on the average may be put 

 at about three months, the farmyard manure 



