FARM MANURE 



503 



/ 



In general, more solid manure is excreted than liquid, tend- 

 ing to throw the advantage toward the former as a carrier 

 of plant nutrients. The following table, adopted from Van 

 Slyke, 1 bears on this point: 



Table CV 



DISTRIBUTION OF NUTRIENT CONSTITUENTS BETWEEN THE LIQUID 

 AND THE SOLID OF WHOLE MANURE. 



It is seen here that a little more than one-half the am- 

 monia, almost all the phosphoric acid, and about two-fifths 

 of the potash, are found in the solid manure. Nevertheless, 

 this apparent advantage of the solid manure is balanced by 

 the ready availability of the constituents carried by the urine, 

 giving it in total about an equal commercial and agricultural 

 value with the solid excrement. Such figures are suggestive 

 of the care that should be taken of the liquid manure. Its 

 ready loss of ammonia by fermentation and putrefaction, and 

 the ease with which all its valuable constituents may escape 

 by leaching, should make it an object of especial regard in 

 handling. (See Fig. 61.) 



284. Poultry manure. — While poultry manure is often 

 produced on the farm in large quantities, it is not included 

 under the term farm manure, which, as generally used, refers 



1 Van Slyke, L. L., Fertilizers and Crops, p. 295; New York, 1912. 



