568 



Farmyard Manure. 



[NOV., 



FARMYARD MANURE. 

 A. D. Hall, M.A. 



Director of the Rothamsted Experimental Station. 



III. The Cost of Making Farmyard Manure.* 

 What price should be set upon a ton of farmyard manure 

 is a question often asked, but no general answer is possible, 

 since so much depends upon the other conditions prevailing upon 

 the farm. As a rule farmyard manure is part of the normal 

 output of the farm, the farmer has only to use it to the best 

 advantage and is not concerned with the question of whether 

 it would be cheaper to replace it with an equivalent amount 

 of some other fertiliser. There are, however, occasions when 

 the problem does arise of whether it is cheaper to make farm- 

 yard manure, to buy it, or to attempt to replace it with 

 artificials ; for example, the men who are farming specially 

 for potatoes or hops often fatten bullocks or pigs solely for 

 the sake of the manure thus made, and are content to lose 

 money on the live stock because of the value of the dung. 

 Since farmyard manure made in this way is often a very 

 expensive article it is important to try and put some monetary 

 value on it, so that the farmer may attain a clearer idea of the 

 profit or loss attached to the keeping of live stock as manure 

 makers. It is, of course, possible to treat farmyard manure 

 like any other fertiliser and value it on the unit system, the 

 result of which would be somewhat as follows : — 



Farmyard manure contains : — s. d. 



*6 per cent, nitrogen at 12s. ... ... ... ... 72 



•3 phosphoric acid at 3s. ... ... ... on 



*6 ,, potash at 4s. ,.. ... ... ... ... 2 5 



Value per ton ... ... .... ... ... 10 6 



Such a valuation, however, gives but little information, be- 

 cause the unit values are taken from concentrated manures and 

 do not apply to dung ; for example, nitrogen in waste materials 

 like shodd}^ can often be obtained at half the price paid for 

 it in sulphate of ammonia or nitrate of soda, and considering 

 the slow availability of much of the nitrogen in dung its unit 



* The previous articles were : — Farmyard Manure, I. Losses during Making and 

 Storage, Ap-il, 1908, p. 7 ; Farmyard Manure, II. Its Value as a Fertiliser, June, 

 1908, p. 161. 



