Maintain the Fertility of Our Soils. ii 
On these assumptions, the total weight of hay consumed will 
be 37,000 tons, with a manurial value of $431,300. The voidings 
equal 95 per cent, of this value or $409,735. I do not mean to say 
that this full value can be realized or that no losses will occur, but 
it is a fact that if our community should desire to purchase the 
amounts of potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen contained in the 
voidings of these 250,000 lambs for 100 days, each lamb consum¬ 
ing three pounds of alfalfa per day, it would cost them not less than 
$ 409 , 735 - 
Is it feasible to preserve the whole of the voidings? Very 
nearly all, and the straw, which is still burned in considerable quan¬ 
tities, could be used to good advantage as an absorbent and would 
thereby be converted into an excellent form for application as a 
manure. We know that no one man in the community would reap 
the benefit of this great value, but the community as a whole should. 
While I have singled out the sheep feeding as an example, the 
principle applies to every individual, whether he keeps only one 
horse or a cow, or is a feeder on a large scale. Everyone ought not 
only to try to preserve and utilize all of the barnyard manure natur¬ 
ally produced on his farm, but he ought to use every practicable 
means to increase the amount. While this is particularly applicable 
to the farming districts, it applies in a less degree to the towns and 
cities as well. 
In using barnyard manure which is produced upon the farm, 
we preserve, in a large measure, the plant food originally present, 
but we do not add any to the total originally present; on the con¬ 
trary a little goes off of the farm in various forms—in the increased 
weight of the lambs, in the case which we have already used as an 
illustration. The exception to this statement is in the case of the 
nitrogen, provided alfalfa, clover or pea-vine hay has been fed, 
when, owing to the fact that these plants obtain a considerable por¬ 
tion of their nitrogen from the air through the agency of certain 
organisms, we may actually return more than we took away from 
the soil with the crop. 
The use of barnyard manure is preeminently a method of main¬ 
taining the fertility of the land, but is in a measure a method of in¬ 
creasing it by improving the conditions of the soil; also by adding 
organic matter, and in our case by increasing the supply of nitrogen. 
green manuring. 
The next best method is probably that of green manuring, and 
for this purpose we have no better plant than alfalfa. I know that 
there are some who may think it too big a sacrifice to turn under a 
good growth of alfalfa for the sake of its manurial effect upon the 
soil. The writer has a great deal of sympathy with this view, but 
it is not well supported by any facts which we can produce. There 
seems to be no plant which could be grown here for this purpose. 
