364 
Supplement to the ''Tropical Agriculturist." [Nov. 1, 1901. 
of this bulletin is to place before the public the 
results of this study accompanied by such 
general remarks as are thought necessary for a 
clear understanding of the subject. 
Farmyard Manure or Cattle Manure is the 
chief mainstay of farmers in all countries, and 
especially in India, where artificial or chemical 
manures are not practicable at present. It con- 
tains all the elements of plant food, nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid and potash. It also exerts a 
powerful influence in improving the mechanical 
texture of the soil : by its application heavy 
clays are rendered more open and easy to work 
and light sands get greater coherence and absorp- 
tive and retentive power. Of the several plant 
food ingredients supplied by cattle manure 
nitrogen is by far the most important as it is 
most deficient in Indian soils, gives the quickest 
results when applied as manure, and is most 
difficult and costly to get. So the aim of every 
farmer should be to get the largest quantify of 
nitrogen in a form readily available for growing 
crops. 
Farmyard manure consists of the dung and 
urine of cattle and of other farm animals. Its 
quality and composition will depend upon : — ■ 
(1) the kind and condition of the animal 
producing it ; 
(2) the quality and quantity of the food 
supplied; 
(3) the care bestowed in collection and 
preservation. 
1, The Animal. — Sheep yield more concen- 
trated dung and urine than horses ; horses than 
cattle ; and cows than buffaloes. The following 
table shows the average amount of nitrogen in 
100 parts of the excrements of these animals : — 
Percentage of nitrogen in animal excrejnents. 
Dung. Urine. 
Sheep ... ... -07 1-4 
Horse ... ... "05 1-2 
Cow ... ... -03 0-8 
This table brings out clearlj- not only the 
difference in the composition of the excrements 
of different species of animals, but also the fact 
that in every case the urine is much richer than 
the dung. 
Amongst cattle themselves an adult animal 
gives a richer manure than a growing calf ; a dry 
cow better than a milking or a pregnant one, 
because in the latter cases a part of the food is 
spent in putting forth the fresh growth or in 
forming the milk. 
The food used in feeding the animals is a more 
important factor in determining the quality of 
the manure than even their kind or condition. 
Tne excrements of the animals of which farm 
manure is chiefly made up are simply the food 
sent out of the body after it has performed its 
functions. So what comes out as manure is what 
has been put in as food : the richer the food is 
in valuable ingredients the richer will be the 
manure. Foods vary very largely in their compo- 
sition, i.e., in the proportion of nitrogen and 
other valuable ingredients they contain. The 
foods given to cattle may be broadly divided into 
(a) the staple straws or green fodders which 
are given in large quantities, when possible, as 
much as the animals will eat, and (6) the concen- 
trated foods generally given in small quantities 
at so much a day per head, as cotton seed, rape 
or mustard cake, jusir seed, gram, arhar, lobia, 
moth, &c. Practically speaking, the bulky foods 
of the former kind are more or less uniform in 
their composition and may be taken to contain 
about 4 lb. of nitrogen in 1,000 lb., while the 
concentrated foods named contain about 35 to 
50 lb. of nitrogen in 1,000 lb. Thus these concen- 
trated foods contain about 10 or 12 times as 
much nitrogen as the straws, and the manure 
produced by an animal as well as its health and 
condition will depend not so much upon the 
straw or fodder given to it as upon the quantity 
of concentrated food given daily. 
This was clearly shown by the analyses made by 
Dr. Leather, the Agricultural Chemist to the 
Government of India, not to speak of the fcount- 
less analyses that have been made in Europe 
and America. He took 13 samples of dung, six 
of which were produced by cattle that were daily 
getting concentrated food in addition to their 
straw, and the remaining seven by ordinary 
village cattle that depend upon grazing and the 
ordinary ration of straw, but get no concentrated 
food. It was found that the former six samples 
contained on the average 0'.54 per cent, of 
nitrogen, against the average of 0-17 per cent, 
of nitrogen contained by the latter seven samples. 
That is, the dung of cattle that get concentrated 
foods contained three times as much nitrogen as 
the dung of cattle that do not get concentrated 
food. By allowing concentrated food it is not 
the dung alone that becomes richer as a manure 
but the urine also, and that in a greater 
proportion. 
In fact with adult working animals the whole 
of the nitrogen and ash constituents contained in 
the food eventually comes out into the manure 
either through the dung or the urine. A clear 
grasp of this fact by the farmers of England and 
other advanced countries has not only contri- 
buted to their collecting and preserving the 
excreta of their live stock more and more care- 
fully in proportion to the cost of the food ; but 
has led them to purposely adopt a more liberal 
feeding of their stock. For they see that the 
money they spend in the purchase of food secures 
them a double advantage : stronger and more 
useful animals, and a richer manure as well. 
The care bestowed in Collection and Preserva- 
tion. — All the dung and all the urine excreted 
by farm animals, together with any litter that 
may be used, when well-rotted without under- 
going any loss of plant food ingredients, make 
the best possible farmyard manure. But in the 
general practice of the cultivators a great part 
of the dung, almost the whole of that collected 
during the dry months, is burnt as fuel either 
in his own household or sold outside to be used 
as such. Thereby the organic matter of the 
burnt dung and the nitrogen contained in it are 
lost. Assuming that a pair of working cattle 
will produce about 100 maunds of fresh dung per 
annum during nights and the non-working hours 
