316 Bacteria in Relation to Country Life 



of mariurial constituents by leaching, there may be 

 enormous losses brought about by the countless number 

 of microorganisms developing in manure. Some of 

 these losses cannot be avoided, even by most careful 

 management. A large portion of them can, however, 

 be prevented and, from the standpoint of national 

 economy, they are deserving of intelligent consideration 

 at the hands of the farmer. 



The unnecessary losses of the humus-forming organic 

 matter in animal manures represent smaller, though none 

 the less important, material values. For instance, mar- 

 ket-gardeners in New Jersey and other eastern states 

 pay as much as $2 or $2.25 for a ton of horse manure, 

 the value of whose nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash 

 does not exceed $1.50 at best. They are, therefore, 

 paying at least 50 cents for the organic matter in a 

 ton of manure. Evidently, they are willing to go to the 

 expense and trouble of securing this organic matter, 

 since it is absolutely necessary to incorporate, from 

 time to time, sufficient quantities of humus-forming 

 material into their open soils. The organic matter of 

 manure has, therefore, a more or less definite value. 

 Wasteful bacterial decomposition may lead here, as in 

 the case of nitrogen, to losses of great magnitude. 



The importance of this matter is frequently over- 

 looked, even by persons otherwise well informed. There 

 are many thousands of acres of arable land thin and 

 defective in their physical properties and poor in bac- 

 teria on account of their deficient supply of humus. 

 Long years of improvident treatment of the manure 

 produced on the farm gradually robbed the land of the 



