THE FERTILIZING VALUES OF FEEDINGSTUFFS 329 



In buying or selling feeds the fertilizing values should be 

 considered. Thus if one buys a ton of cottonseed meal for 

 $35.00, in reahty the feed costs him only $14.80, because the 

 manure from it has a value of $20.20. The man who pays 

 $2.00 per ton to have oat straw baled, sells it for $4.00 per 

 ton, and hauls it to the market, loses the feeding value of 

 the straw, the time and labor of hauling, and $1.20 in cash, 

 because it will cost him $3.20 to buy commercial fertilizers 

 to replace the fertilizing value of the manure which the straw 

 would make if fed on the farm. Thus, in selling feeds, one 

 should consider how much it will cost to restore the fertility 

 removed from the farm by the crop sold. 



In general, instead of selling off a large part of the grain and 

 roughage from the farm and buying " complete " commercial 

 fertilizers to maintain the fertility of the land, it will be better 

 to follow a good system of crop rotation and feed the crops 

 on the farm, thus retaining a large amount of their fertility. 

 If nitrogenous concentrates are purchased and fed on the 

 farm and the manure carefully conserved, it is probable 

 that the feeder will return to the land more fertility than he 

 removes in his crops, and the expenditure for commercial 

 fertihzers will be reduced to a minimum. 



