December, 1931] Dairy Faeming in Grafton County 



35 



but its utility is enhanced when used in small amounts and on cash 

 ■crops. The feeding of cows to get more manure to produce more crops 

 to feed more cows is a rather vicious circle that does not redound in 

 any great advantage to the person who does the work. 



Table 17 — Production and value of manure. 



411 



farms. 



Average 

 per farm. 



Estimated tons of manure recovered 86,272 209.9 



Estimated value of manure $163,483 $398 



Value per ton $1.89 



Number of animal units 10,491.1 25.5 



Tons of manure recovered per animal unit 8.2 



* Out of 414 farmers, one had no land ; one made no use of manure that 

 j'ear ; one had no cows the previous winter. 



Estimates varied from nothing to three or four dollars per ton for 

 the value of stable manure at the barn. The average value of $1.89 is 

 probably high in the sense that these farmers could supplement a part 

 of this manure with cheaper sources of plant food and get equally good 

 results. 



Approximately 12 tons of manure including bedding are made per 

 year by an animal unit. The proportion of this amount recovered at 

 the barn for use on crops depends on the pasturing practices and meth- 

 ods of handling the manure. These farmers' estimates averaged 8.2 

 tons per animal unit available for application to crops. This provides 

 over 200 tons per farm and would make possible the use of 20 tons per 

 acre for one-fifth of the crop acres each year. 



FERTILITY PRACTICES 



How the Manure Was Used 



More than half of the manure was applied to hay, as shown in Table 

 18, and in addition, hay benefits mostly from the liberal applications 

 on oats at time of seeding. In Livingston County, New York, only 

 three per cent of the acres in hay received manure and only six per 

 cent of the spring grain acreages. Most of the manure was applied to 

 silage corn and intensive cash crops. ^ In Madison County, New York, 

 where more cows were kept in proportion to crops, 33 per cent of the 

 manure was applied to corn silage and 44 per cent to hay on old 

 ground.^" '\ ■ 



Outside of the noticeably large applications of manure per acre, par- 

 ticularly in the cases of hay and potatoes, the most striking peculiarity 

 in comparison to other regions is the use of so much on oats. This is 

 partly accounted for by the fact that a large proportion of the oats 

 are used for hay. The stimulation of leaf and stem growth by the use 

 of manure is all to the good in this case and provides just so much bet- 

 ter conditions for the hay crop that is to follow. 



