32 
Colorado Experiment Station. 
The moisture in the manure plays a large part in retaining tl 
free ammonia. 
Nitrogen as nitrates varied widely. There was none in the fres j 
manures even after keeping the air-dried samples in the laboratory se 1 1 
eral years. As much as 27 percent of the total nitrogen was four 
present as nitrates in one sample. There was, however, no unifo 
mity in the results, i. e., some of the older manures carried larg 
amounts of nitrates while other samples of the same age carried almo 
none. 
The carbon and hydrogen in manures are present in practical! 
constant quantities, the age seemingly having nothing to do with tl 
amount. This was true in both the cattle and sheep manures and j ; 
both the soluble ash is nearly a constant quantity. 
Taking the results of all the tables as a whole, one is impress^ 
by the sameness of the different determinations; especially is this tri 
of the soluble ash, the potash, the phosphoric acid, the carbon and h; 
drogen. It is not true, of course, of the insoluble ash which increas< 
decidedly with age, nor of the free ammonia and nitrogen which d 
crease with age. This sameness in the results means that, under 01 
conditions at least, the manure is broken down by bacterial life ; 
about the same rate that leaching carries away the soluble salts. 
