8 
Colorado Experiment Station. 
The Second Weighing. 
The next weighing took place on May 18, 1906, and samples 
were taken as before. There had been heavy rains and the manure 
was again quite moist. There was no odor of ammonia. 
Our Experiment is Stopped. 
On March 20, 1907, when the time had come to reweigh the ma¬ 
nure, it was found that by mistake a load of this manure had been 
taken out and used in the greenhouses. Samples were taken for 
analysis as before but the experiment was of course spoiled. It was 
hoped this study could be extended over a period of about five years. 
The results of the experiment are given in Table I. 
Loss of Dry Matter as Determined by Other Investigators. 
From many experiments conducted by Voelecker, with dung and 
litter, he concluded that from 30 to 60 percent of the original weight 
of the manure was lost in the course of six to twelve months time. 
This would indicate that our manure did not lose as rapidly as do those 
in climates where there is a heavier rainfall and consequently more 
leaching taking place. This fact is borne out by a comparison with 
other experiments as given by Storer in his work on Agriculture, and 
also by many experiments for short periods of time, generally less than 
a year. Taking these experiments as a whole, the loss in a year is 
about 45 to 50 percent, while the loss during this experiment was 32.5 
percent in 15months, with a rainfall for that time of 26.18 inches, 
which is much more than the average for this locality. 
Character of the Loss in Semi-Arid Climates. 
Leaching occurs where the rainfall is heavy and washes away much 
soluble plant food, but helps to check the loss of ammonium compounds, 
while a dry climate prevents excessive leaching but destroys much nitro¬ 
gen by volatilizing the ammonia. 
Loss of Nitrogen. 
Comparing the determinations of total nitrogen as they stand, 
without taking into account the loss in gross weight which occurred 
during the first year, there has been a loss of one-third of the total 
nitrogen, mostly in the form of free ammonia. 
Taking into consideration the loss in weight of dry matter, there 
is a total or absolute loss of 48.6 percent of the total nitrogen during 
the first year—surely very startling figures to one who has not calcu¬ 
lated the loss for oneself. The remaining manure is, however, 
more valuable under our conditions than the original larger quantity, 
