18 Fertilizers 



Losses in manures. 



It is natural to infer that proper losses of fertility are 

 confined to the removal of the constituents in the sale of 

 farm products, and that those contained in the materials 

 not sold and in the feeds used upon the farm are again 

 returned in part to the land. Theoretically this is correct, 

 but the losses that do occur, particularly in the handling 

 of manures, should not be overlooked. While it is im- 

 possible to even roughly estimate the waste or loss of 

 fertility due to the improper making or handling of 

 manures, some idea may be obtained when the enormous 

 amounts produced and the sources of possible loss are 

 considered. 



If this enormous mass of waste material were properly 

 used, it would go a great way toward increasing the 

 present and immediate fertility of our soils, or in retard- 

 ing the time of exhaustion, and it is quite pertinent to 

 inquire if it is properly used. It has been demonstrated 

 by experiments at Cornell Experiment Station that 50 

 per cent of the total constituents in farm manures is 

 liable to be lost by ill-regulated fermentation and by leach- 

 ing; and further, careful observations and experiments 

 show that the conditions in the larger number of barn- 

 yards are such as to encourage the maximum loss by 

 these means. It is morally certain that a large per- 

 centage of the constituents contained in them are lost; 

 they never reach the right place on the farm. 



It is estimated that if but one-tenth of the present waste 

 could be avoided, and a very large part of it is prac- 

 tically avoidable, and at a very slight expense, the total 

 amount of constituents that may thus be saved for further 

 use would be more than equivalent to the amounts now 



