FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 49 



power. The fertility and productive power had been by no 

 means maintained, in spite of the fact that they bought some 

 feed. 



A good many people think we ought to practice live stock 

 farming in order to maintain the humus in the soil. How much 

 organic matter do you think you would secure in the manure 

 from a ton of dry feed? Take a ration of one-third corn en- 

 silage, one-third alfalfa or clover hay and one-third concen- 

 trates, to make up a ton of dry matter. Then feed it and collect 

 the total excrements and find how much total dry matter is con- 

 tained in the excrements. Some people seem to think there 

 would be about a ton and a half from one ton containing the 

 feed, but there would be about seven hundred pounds. The de- 

 struction of organic matter by the animal amounts to about two- 

 thirds of the total consumed. It is a little less than two-thirds 

 for roughage and more than tw^o-thirds for the concentrates. 



Another feature that we must consider is the loss of both 

 vegetable matter and plant food from the waste of manure. 

 You would hardly think, perhaps, of manure as a perishable 

 product, but it really is one of the most perishable in one sense 

 of the word. It is almost as difficult to save liquid manure as 

 to save spilled milk. You know as well as I that you need con- 

 crete pits for it to run into, or much absorbent bedding, or you 

 will lose a considerable portion of the Hquid excrement. But if 

 you don't lose it by leaching, there is still possible a large loss 

 from the decomposition of manure, even under cover, if it is 

 allowed to ferment. The Maryland Experiment Sta^tion people 

 put out 80 tons of farm manure in a pile and left it one year, 

 and at the end of the year weighed it and found they had 27; 

 tons left. They did not know just when the largest loss oc- 

 curred, but you know it was probably during the first few 

 months, because that is when it heats and when the fermenta- 

 tion is active. After that it loses its heat and its fermenting 

 power. The Canadian Experiment Station put out 1,938 

 pounds of organic matter in the form of manure. They left it 

 four months during the summer, and then weighed and analyzed 

 it.. They had left 655 pounds. And when we are thinking 



