The: Deterioration of Manures. ' 7 
strong, so strong that we tried to measure the ammonia by drawing 
air from the surface of the pile through normal sulfuric acid. A 
barrel was fitted with a stop cock in the bottom and used as an aspi¬ 
rator. Several flasks were filled with normal sulfuric acid and 
connected to a funnel, filled with cotton to prevent particles of ma¬ 
nure from finding their way into the flasks. The funnel was simply 
laid on top of the manure pile and air drawn through the funnel and 
flasks by means of the barrel aspirator which held about 45 gallons 
of water or 6.015 cubic feet. When the water had all run out of 
the barrel, it was found that the flasks contained 0.0885 gram of 
ammonia. 
An open dish of normal sulfuric acid with a surface of 67.2 square 
inches placed on top of the manure heap, absorbed 0.2606 gram of 
ammonia in 24 hours. This gives us some idea, vague though it may be, 
of the enormous loss of free ammonia. This fact has been observed 
over and over again and many ingenious ways have been used to 
show it, but each time we are astonished at the magnitude of this 
loss. 
The Manure was'Moistened. 
Our object in this experiment was not to prevent all loss or even 
as much of it as is easily possible, but to determine the loss under 
ordinary conditions. The manure, however, was very dry and to pre¬ 
vent an extraordinary loss, it was thought best to wet it down 
thoroughly with the hose when first put into the crib. This was the 
only precaution used to prevent fire-fanging and was used only once. 
On June 11, 1904, a hole was dug into the pile to see if any burn¬ 
ing had taken place. There were some burned spots but the heavy 
rains had evidently kept the bacteria partially in check. There was 
a decided odor of ammonia and the manure was quite moist. 
The First Weighing. 
It was intended to weigh the manure at the end of the first year, 
but a long wet spell and work at the laboratory prevented until June 
24th, 1905. On turning over the manure at this time, there was no 
odor of ammonia. The manqre was well rotted and quite moist due 
to the recent rains. There must have been considerable loss from 
leaching as a rich brown liquid had oozed from the bottom of the 
crib and had run across the road in several places. A sample of 
each load was taken and after thoroughly mixing, two samples were 
drawn, one for the regular analysis and the other placed in a glass 
can and sealed for a determination of ammonia and moisture. The 
gross weight at this time was 20,595 pounds. 
