STOCK RAISING AND SOIL FERTILITY 



175 



MANURE VALUE OP FARM PRODUCTS 



Nitrogen 



Meadow hay o „ 20.4 



Timothy hay 19.7 



Hungarian hay 23.1 



Red clover hay 40.2 



Wheat straw 11.0 



Barley straw 12.S 



Oat straw 12.2 



Corn stalks 16.9 



Potatoes 7.0 



Mangels 4.6 



Sugar beets 6.1 



Turnips „ 3.7 



Carrots 3.7 



Wheat bran 49.2 



Rye bran 48.9 



Wheat middlings 48.5 



Brewers' grains 17.8 



Oil meal 105.1 



Cottonseed meal 135.7 



Winter wheat 37.5 



Winter rye 33.9 



Oats 36.4 



Corn (Indian) 33.1 



Barley 39.7 



Cow's milk 10.2 



Cheese 90.6 



Live cattle 53.2 



Live sheep 44.8 



Live swine 40.0 



Eggs 43.6 



Unwashed wool . . . o 108.0 



MANURIAL VALUE OF FARM 

 PRODUCTS 



How farm fertility is lost — The table 

 shows that when the farmer sells a ton 

 of timothy hay off the farm, he sells 

 about $6 worth of manure with it. When 

 he sells a ton of wheat bran he sells fer- 

 tility to the value of $12.50. A ton of 

 pigs takes away $8.17 worth of the farm 

 fertility and a ton of unwashed wool, 

 $24.27 worth. In other words, when a 

 man sells a ton of timothy hay for $14, 

 the net price is but $8, because with it 

 he has taken away $6 worth of his work- 

 ing capital in the form of farm fertility. 



Nitrogen costly — The most expensive 

 element in fertilizers is nitrogen and 

 the greater the amount of this element 

 sold in any product the greater will be 

 the financial loss to the farmer. This is 

 not strictly true, however, because all 

 leguminous plants like beans, peas, 

 clover, alfalfa, etc, have the power, 

 through tubercles on their roots, of 

 utilizing some of the nitrogen in the air 

 for their growth and thus actually 

 leave the ground richer in this element 

 than before they were planted. ^ As an 

 offset to this, however, very considerable 

 quantities of nitrogen are lost to the 

 farm through volatilization from stable 

 and yard manure. 



-Pounds per ton- 

 Phosphoric 

 acid 



8.2 

 14.4 



6.8 

 11.2 



4.4 



3.8 . 



3.8 

 10.0 



3 2 



1.2 



1.6 



1.9 



2.0 

 28.6 

 68.6 



7.4 



8.2 

 32.2 

 29.2 

 10.6 

 11.2 

 12.4 

 11.8 



9.0 



3.4 

 23.0 

 37.2 

 24.6 

 17.6 



7.4 



o o 



Potash 



26.4 



40.8 



42.4 



36.6 



12.6 



18.8 



17.8 



19.2 



11.4 



8.2 



7.8 



6.6 



5.6 



54.6 



38.6 



5.2 



1.0 



24.8 



56.2 



15.8 



17.8 



7.4 

 15.4 

 3.0 

 5.0 

 3.4 

 3.0 

 3.6 

 3.0 

 149.2 



Value per 



ton 



dollars 



$5.10 



5.99 



6.10 



9.07 



2.69 



3.32 



3.06 



4.39 



1.87 



1.19 



1.46 



1.02 



1.00 



12.45 



14.65 



8.96 



3.64 



21.11 



28.35 



7.75 



7.26 



7.43 



6.75 



7.99 



2.09 



17.21 



11.78 



9.45 



8.17 



8.05 



24.47 



Plant food retained in manure I n 



feeding animals farm crops or purchased 

 feeds, it has been shown by innumerable 

 experiments that nearly the whole fer- 

 tilizing value of the material is recov- 

 ered in the manure. The amount re- 

 covered is dependent to a considerable 

 extent upon the age, condition and kind 

 of animal. Full grown animals which 

 maintain their normal weight excrete 

 practically all of the fertilizing constit- 

 uents consumed in the food. Young 

 and rapidly growing animals retain a 

 considerable portion for building up 

 their bodies and may not excrete, there- 

 fore, more than 50 per cent of the fer- 

 tilizing constituents of the food. Milch 

 cows take some of the mineral elements 

 and nitrogen from the food for the pro- 

 duction of milk and so may not excrete 

 more than 65 to 85 per cent of the fer- 

 tilizing constituents of the food. Fat- 

 tening and working animals excrete from 

 90 to 95 per cent of the fertilizing 

 constituents of the food. 



Necessity for preserving manure — - 

 We thus see that by utilizing the crops 

 grown on the farm, for the production 

 of animals or animal products, a very 

 large percentage of the fertility of the 

 farm is retained on the land in the form 



