BARNYARD, STABLE, GREEN MANURES 99 



Miscellaneous Farm Manures. — In addition to the manure from farm 

 animals there is a variety of materials that may be available as manure 

 on many farms. It is well to utilize these as far as possible. Among 

 those most commonly met with are night-soil, leaf-mould and muck or 

 peat. Night-soil is best used when mixed with some good absorbent, 

 such as loam, muck or peat, and composted. Muck and peat are terms 

 used to designate accumulations of vegetable matter that are frequently 

 found in marshes, sw'amps and small ponds. Such material varies greatly 

 in its composition, and is especially valuable for its content of nitrogen, 

 and for its physical effect upon the soil. Leaf-mould pertains to decayed 

 accumulations of leaves frequently found in considerable quantities in 

 forested areas. It is especially valuable for some classes of garden truck 

 and flowers, but is ordinarily too costly because of the difficulty of gather- 

 ing it in any considerable quantities. 



Value of Manure Influenced by Quality of Feed. — The plant-focd 

 content of manure is almost direct!}' in proportion to the plant-food 

 constituents contained in the feeds from which it comes. Thus, con- 

 centrated feeds high in protein, such as cottonseed meal, wheat bran 

 and oil cake, produce manure of the highest value. Ranking next 

 to these are such feeds as alfalfa and clover hay and other legumes. 

 The cereals, including corn and oats together with hay made from 

 grasses, rank third, while manure from roots is the lowest in plant- 

 food constituents and fertilizing value. Not only will the plant- 

 food constituents be most abundant in the manure from the concen- 

 trates, but it is likely also to be more readily available than that produced 

 from roughage. 



These facts are important in connection with the selling of cash 

 crops and purchasing such concentrates as cottonseed meal and bran. 

 One who buys cottonseed meal as a fertilizer gets only its fertilizing value. 

 If it is purchased for feeding purposes, one may secure both its feeding 

 value and practically all of its manurial value. The relative price, there- 

 fore, of cash crops and purchased concentrates as feed is only one phase 

 of the exchange problem. Such concentrates produce manure having a 

 much higher value than that from the cash crops. This should be con- 

 sidered in connection with the exchange. 



The table on next page shows the pounds of fertilizer constituents 

 in one ton of different agricultural products. It indicates the exchanges 

 which might, therefore, be effected with advantage. 



The feeding value of a ton of wheat bran does not differ materially 

 from that of a ton of shelled corn. The difference in its feeding value 

 affects the nutritive ratio rather than the energy value. By exchanging 

 one ton of corn for an equal weight of wheat bran, there would be a gain 

 to the farm of 21 pounds of nitrogen, 46 pounds phosphoric acid and 24 

 pounds of potash, as shown by the above table. At usual prices for the 

 fertilizer constituents, this gain would amount to not less than $6 worth 



