22 
Colorado Experiment Station. 
of ammonia, showing that ammonification had now almost entirely 
ceased, if, indeed, it had not done so sometime previously. 
The further loss of 46.1 pounds of total nitrogen during the sec¬ 
ond year points to the fact that ammonia was still escaping, though 
much less rapidly than in the fresh manure. 
Another fact responsible at times for large losses of nitrogen is 
the presence of denitrifying bacteria which set free elementary nitro¬ 
gen. 
CARBON AND HYDROGEN. 
Elementary carbon and hydrogen determinations were also made 
on these samples of manure, the object being to find out to what extent 
the carbon accumulated in the manure as it grew older. Theoretically 
it would seem as though the amount of carbon would increase as the 
manure is changed by the bacteria with the formation of soluble salts 
and setting free of gases. Since the insoluble ash accumulates with 
the age of the manure, this factor must be eliminated in the results. 
The percentages of carbon and hydrogen are, therefore, re-calculated 
which gives a better basis for comparison. 
The re-calculated results present a remarkable series. Far from 
being a variable quantity or showing any accumulation with age, the 
ratio of the carbon to the hydrogen is as constant a quantity as if 
the material were a series of lignite coal samples rather than ma¬ 
nures. The average gives a ratio of 33.6 to 4.9. The breaking down 
of the cellulose with the liberation of carbon dioxide has kept pace with 
other kinds of fermentation leaving the same relative amounts of both 
carbon and hydrogen present in the manure. 
