352 SOILS 



The plant food in manure is subject to serious 

 loss. Although there may be but little plant food in 

 manure, as compared with artificial fertilisers, yet 

 most of it is very soluble and is easily lost, if the 

 manure is not handled carefully. The plant food 

 in manure is wasted in two ways; by leaching and 

 by fermentation. 



The Leaching oi Manure. No other farm 

 practice has been discussed more than that of al- 

 lowing plant food to leach from manures. One 

 can scarcely attend a farmers' institute without 

 hearing about it, or read a farm journal without 

 seeing a reference to it. All this agitation has 

 probably saved many million dollars, worth of 

 plant food that otherwise would have been wasted. 

 Vet is it doubtful if one per cent, of American farm- 

 ers realise what they lose by neglecting to care 

 for manures properly. One estimate places the 

 annual loss of plant food on American farms, by 

 leaching from manure that could easily have been 

 prevented, as $200,000,000 or over four times what 

 is paid each year for commercial fertilisers. If the 

 leaks on a few farms are noted, and the number of 

 farms in a neighbourhood that suffer similar 

 losses are counted, one will conclude that this 

 estimate is not too high. The saving of manures 

 is indeed a threadbare subject; but there is such 

 urgent need that farmers adopt better methods of 

 handling manures that one is justified in harping 

 upon it 



One of the most common farm scenes in eastern 

 United States is a row of manure piles beneath the 

 eaves of the barn. Each pile extends up to the 

 hole or window out of which it was thrown from 

 behind the cows or horses. Water from the roof 

 drips upon it; rains and snows beat upon it; winds 



