612 SOILS: PROPERTIES AND MANAGEMENT 



This balancing effect may be shown in another way. 

 Let it be supposed that to 10 pounds of poultry manure 

 having a composition of 1.6 per cent nitrogen, 1.5 per 

 cent phosphoric acid, and 0.9 per cent potash, there are 

 added 4 pounds of sawdust, 4 pounds of acid phosphate, 

 and 2 pounds of kainit. The manure is rendered drier, 

 and its composition becomes 0.8 per cent nitrogen, 3.7 

 per cent phosphoric acid, and 1.5 per cent potash. It is 

 evident, from this and the data previously given, that 

 the principal benefit of reinforcing manure lies in the 

 balancing influence, and that acid phosphate and floats 

 are the most desirable to use. 



515. Lime and manure. — Very often it would be a 

 saving of labor to apply lime and manure to the soil at 

 the same time. This can readily be done with the car- 

 bonated forms. Such lime may be mixed with the 

 manure, either in the stable or in the pile, without any 

 danger of detrimental results. The close union of the 

 lime and the organic matter may even increase the solu- 

 bility of the former. Caustic compounds of lime, how- 

 ever (CaO and Ca(OH) 2 ), must be kept from manure. 

 These active forms react with the ammonium carbonate 

 coming from the urea, and cause the liberation of the 

 ammonia, which may be readily lost in the air : — 



CON 2 H 4 + 2 H 2 = (NH 4 ) 2 C0 3 

 (NH 4 ) 2 C0 3 + Ca(OH) 2 = CaC0 3 + 2 NH 4 OH 



A stable or a shed containing manure may be at once 

 deodorized by the use of quicklime, but only by the loss 

 of much nitrogen, which costs on the market eighteen or 

 twenty cents a pound. Caustic lime and manure may be 

 applied to the same soil by applying the lime ten days 

 or two weeks before the manure. The lime will then 



