838 
The Conservation of Farm-yard Manure. 
easy precautions in storing their dung, should take a primary place 
in farm management. He is of opinion that a portion of the grants 
accorded by the Minister of Agriculture to agricultural societies 
could not be better spent than in giving prizes to farmers for the 
construction of liquid-manure tanks, and for good arrangements for 
storing dung after removal from the stalls or boxes. 
“ Less than 2,000,000/ (80,000 1 . sterling) devoted to this 
‘ protection ’ of the farmer against his own ignorance or care- 
lessness, would suffice to bring about, in a few years, a revolution in 
all our communes as regards the utilization of farm-yard manure. 
.... In ten years, or less, such a reform would be brought about ; 
and agriculture, if she recovered but one-fourth of her annual losses 
through the carelessness of farmers, would find herself enriched to 
the extent of 40,000,000/’. to 50,000,000/1 (1,000,000/. to 2,000,000/. 
sterling) per annum.” 
“ It would seem that no investment of State subsidies could be 
more remunerative.” 
“ Would,” he concludes, “ that the friends of agriculture, so nume- 
rous in Parliament, would lend their aid to the bringing about of 
some measure of the kind proposed, and so earn the gratitude of the 
farmer.” 
The official Agricultural Returns issued in our own country do 
not contain estimates of the farm-yard manure annually produced. 
They afford information, it is true, as to the numbers of live-stock 
in the kingdom, and from this may be obtained some idea as to the 
total live-weight, from which a calculation similar to that of M. 
Grandeau might be made. But there would obviously be little in- 
formation derivable as to the farm-yard manure produced, since our 
sheep either roam at large or are folded on the land, and only under 
occasional or exceptional circumstances add to the dung-heap, 
although they contribute a large quantity of manure to the soil. In 
the same way a large proportion of our horned stock are grazed 
except in the winter— and, when grazing, make no farmyard 
manure. 
Probably the best estimate that we in this country could make 
of our farm-yard manure would be one based on our production of 
straw. 
In 1892 — and I select that year in preference to the entirely 
exceptional one of 1893 — there were, in the United Kingdom, 
2,298,607 acres of wheat, 2,220,243 acres of barley, and 4,238,036 
acres of oats. If we assume that the wheat yielded H ton of straw 
per. acre, barley 1 ton, and oats 1 j ton, we have a total of 10,965,698 
tons of straw— say, in round numbers, 11,000,000 tons. Possibly 
the estimate is a little liberal, but we are leaving out of account 
61,392 acres of rye, and over 500,000 acres of beans and peas, and 
also the fact that we imported in 1892 “ for agricultural purposes ” 
19,556 tons of straw. No doubt a tangible quantity is sold into the 
towns, but a great deal of this is returned to the country as dung. 
The quantity used for manufactures and that consumed as chaff would 
