Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-16
AeouT MANURE.

ABOUT MANURE.
Tho Relative Value Of Horse and Cow
Manure Discussed.
Taking both horses and cows as they
are generally kept on the farm, the
manure from the former will be tho
most valuable. do not feel, however,
like dropping the subject, says a con-
tributor to the Breeders Gazette, with
such brief answer. for there should be
a reason given for the answer when pos
sible, and if one will only follow up the
subject opened by this question he will
gain light upon one OF the most impor-
tant topics that can be considered on
the farm. To begin at the beginning,
we should bear in mind that there can
only pass from our cSStle what has been
given to them, and that all of the ele-
ments in the manure must have been
supplied in the food. AS we may sup
pose that foods vary in amounts of fer
tilizing elements they carry with them,
we may hold it as correct that the kind
of food given to our farm animals gov
ems the kind of manure we get from
them. This is the basic principle to be
borne in mind in considering the sub
that we care for are nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid and potash. OF our feeding
stuffs, grains and concentrated foods
like cotton-seed meal and ,oil-meal con-
tain the greatest amount OF these three
fertilizing constituents, and straw con-
tains the least. Starch and woody mat
ter are not fertilizing elements in them
selves.
L. l. =
that each animal we feed appropriates
to itself of the elements of fertility in
accordance with it's nature and wants,
SO that If we supply the same amount of
feed to different animals we will not get
exactly the same amount of fertility in
the excrement Of each. A little refec-
ton will point out the reason for these
differences: A grown horse. which does
not increase in weight. but each day
wears out as much of his body in labor
as was built up by the food, must evil
IDENTIFY give out in the excrement all the
fertilizers in the food supplied him.
The colt, or horse gaining in weight,
evidently retains some of these elements
in the body, as they go to help make up
the increased weight. A cow giving
milk transfers some of the nitrogen to
the milk in the shape of caseine, and
some of the potash and phosphoric acid
in the shape of ash; these are for the
building up of the muscle and bone of
her calf. Evidently, then, the excre-
ment of the COW giving milk does not
contain all of the fertilizing elements
supplied in the food, since a portion Of
them is carried off in the milk. Sheep
require nitrogen, potash, etc., for the
wool and the yolk that accompanies it,
SO that the manure OF sheep, also, does
not quite contain all of the fertilizing
material in the food.
Fattening steers gain in weight, but
the increase is almost wholly tallow,
and there is not nitrogen, phosphoric
acid or potash in that, so the steer gives
practically all of the fertilizing ele-
ments in his excrement. The growing
pig, like the young of other animals,
takes out of the food fertilizing ele-
ments for his frame and muscle, but
when grown takes out very little, for
the same reason that the fattening
steer takes little. In all cases, how
ever, the amount of fertilizing elements
extracted from the food by our farm an
imals is less than most would suppose.
The bulk of the food consumed is made
up of carbohydrates, which are burnt
up in the body or converted into fat,
and carbohydrates are valueless as
manure. We may allow that growing
animals take out something like ten per
cent. of the fertility from the feed, while
mich COWS take out from twenty to
twenty-five per cent. We have, then, a
second proposition to be borne IN mind,
viz: That the amount of fertility taken
out of the food varies from nothing with
animals that gain nothing in weight,
such as work horses and grown cattle,
up to mich cows, which place from
twenty to twenty-five per cent. of the
fertilizing elements in the milk.
With such small losses as these we
see at once that rich manure depends
mainly upon rich feed, and we begin to
understand why it is that English farm
ers buy so much of our oil-cake to feed
instead of corn, when we learn that
ton of oil-cake contains about ninety
pounds of nitrogen, twenty-nine pounds
of potash and nearly forty pounds of
phosphoric acid, while a ton ct corn con-
tains only thirty-three pounds of nitro
gen, seven of potash and twelve of
phospheric acid. Eastern farmers buy
nitrogen at about sixteen cents pound,
potash at three and One-half or foul
cents and phosphoric acid at seven
| cents, and pay out millions of dollars
Hannually for commercial fertilizers con-
tanning these elements.
The third important point to be re-
| membered is that large part of the fer.
| tility is in the urine. In general way
| it is fair to estimate that three-fourths
| of the fertilizing elements under consid
| Grafton are in the liquids and only one
| fourth in the solid excrement. This be-
ing true no space need be occupied in
showing the Importance of saving the
liquid part Of the manure.
| A SLED WITH WHEELS.
| A Useful Implement to Have About the
! Place.
| One of the most useful implements
that can be brought upon a farm or mar
ket garden is small sled. The one
shown in Fig. is six feet long. three
| feet wide and fourteen inches deep