HANDLING MANURE ON THE FARM 223 



food value is shown in an experiment recorded by Pro- 

 fessor Roberts. Starting with 4,000 pounds of manure, 

 the amount decreased to 1,730 pounds; because of poor 

 preservation, sixty per cent, of the nitrogen escaped into 

 the air, seventy-five per cent, of the potassium and forty 

 per cent, of the phosphorus leached away in rain water 

 in all a loss so great that no farm can stand it even for a 

 short time. 



When this pile of manure is considered from the stand- 

 point of its money value, we find that at the beginning it 

 was worth $5.48 ; but after being exposed for five months, 

 the plant-food value was only $2.03 scarcely one-third its 

 original value. Surely no farmer can afford to follow any 

 method so wasteful as this. What method do you follow? 

 Just bear this in mind: If you haul manure to the field 

 and spread thinly over the soil as fast as it is made, say 

 each day or once a week, you will not only save all the 

 plant food it contains, but you will give the soil all the 

 benefit of the action of fermentation on the soil. 



When we consider that at least half of the entire amount 

 of manure made on our farms is as carelessly handled, we 

 can realize in short order the enormous loss that annually 

 takes place ; a loss in real value as large as the entire crop 

 of American wheat or cotton is worth. Just take this 

 direction and you will find an explanation for the deple- 

 tion of so many lands ; you will find the real cause of so 

 much poor farming and of lessened yields ; you will find, 

 in a large measure, the true meaning of abandoned farms ; 

 you will find the gist of all the troubles that infect the 

 soil, the farm, and the farmer. 



These evil results may be eliminated at least reduced 

 to a minimum if the manure be applied direct to the 

 fields. 



Where to apply manure. You ought not apply manure 



