FAEM MANURE 521 



Table CXIV 

 absorptive power of bedding for water. 



Material 



Mixed shavings 



Mixed sawdust .... 

 Fine pine shavings 



Muck 



Wheat straw , 



Oats straw 



Peat 



Peat moss 



Percentage of 

 Water Retained 



124 

 160 

 185 

 200 

 210 

 250 

 600 

 1300 



thus diluted unnecessarily with material which often does 

 not carry large quantities of available fertilizing ingredients. 



The next care is that floors should be tight, so that the 

 free liquid cannot drain away but will be held in contact with 

 the absorbing materials. The preserving of manures in stalls 

 with tight floors has been for years a common method of han- 

 dling dung in England. The trampling of the animals, and 

 the continued addition of litter as the manure accumulates, 

 explain the reason for the success of the method. The follow- 

 ing data, from Ohio,^ show the relative recovery of food ele- 

 ments in manure produced on a cement floor and on an earth 

 floor, respectively. The experiment was conducted with steers 

 over a period of six months. Even with a good dirt floor, the 

 leaching losses are considerable. (Table CXV, page 522.) 



297. Hauling directly to the field.^ — Where it is possible 



* Thome, 0. E., Maintenance of Fertility; Ohio Agr. Exp. Sta., Bui. 

 183, p. 199, 1907. 



^Good discussions of handling farm manure are as follows: 



Hart, E, B., Getting the Most Profit from Farm Manure; Wis, Agr. 

 Exp. Sta., Bui. 221, 1912. 



Beal, W. H., Barnyard Manure; U. S. Bept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. 192, 

 1904 



Eoberts, I. P., The Fertility of the Land, Chapter IX, pp. 188-213; 

 New York, 1904. 



