50 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



about the production of humus on the dairy farm and the main- 

 tenance of humus in our soil, it is worth while to consider that 

 the dairy cow will destroy two-thirds of it, and if it is allowed 

 to be exposed or suffer from fermentation three or four months 

 during summer weather, another two-thirds of the one-third 

 remaining will be destroyed. Thus you would get upon your 

 land, after three or four months' exposure of manure in the 

 summer, one-ninth of the organic matter in the food consumed 

 by the cattle. I suspect there are perhaps more farmers in Illi- 

 nois that get manure out three or four months after it is pro- 

 duced than that get it out immediately. Wherever it is at all 

 possible or feasible, it should go directly from the stable to the 

 field. 



The decomposition or loss is not very rapid if the manure 

 is kept well packed and moist, but if it is allowed to heat, the 

 loss is enormous, or if it is thrown out where rains can get at 

 it, there is also enormous loss. 



You notice from the statistics or facts that I have given 

 you, I think, that the animals retain a very considerable part of 

 the phosphorus present in the food they consume. Soils are usu- 

 ally poor in phosphorus, so that in ordinary live-stock farming, 

 where the farmer does nothing but grow clover or other legumes 

 in his rotation, and then uses his manure, he is putting manure 

 poor in phosphorus on soil poor in phosphorus, and I don't know 

 of any investment that is more profitable than the balancing of 

 the ration for crops. You know how profitable it is to balance 

 the ration . for cattle, and the crops need a balanced ration as 

 well as those cows. We are often producing crops that are way 

 out of balance. Of course for the use of ordinary crops upon 

 ordinary soil, in order to l3alance the ration with manure, we 

 must add phosphorus to it, and I just want to call your attention 

 to some records that have been made. I have the records of a 

 number of years of work at the Ohio Experiment Station. They 

 used ordinary manure by itself and used the same quantity of 

 the same kind of manure, where they added phosphate in two 

 different forms, one the raw ground rock phosphate and the 

 other acid phosphate. Either form is good. The acid phosphate 



