Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-03-26
About Manure.
TIE RELATIVE VALUE OF HORSE AND COW
MANURE DISCUSSED.

LIN hhLAllNE VALUE VI HORSE AND CON-
MANURE DISCUSSED.
Taking both horses and COWS as they ara
generally kept on the farm, the manure
from the former will be the most valuable.
do not feel. however, like dropping the
subject, says contributor to the Breeders
Gazette, with such brief answer for there
should be reason given for the answer
when possible, and if one will only follow
up the subject opened by this question be
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 cattle what has been given to them,
and that all of the elements in the mature
must have been supplied in the food. As
we may suppose that foods vary 10 amounts
of fertilizing elements they carry with them,
We may hold it as correct that the kind Of
food given to our farm animals governs the
kind of manure We get from them. This
is the basic principle to be borne in mind in
considering the subject. The three Se-
ments of fertilizers that we care for are
nitrogen, phoshphoric acid and potash. OF
our feeding stuffs, grains and concentrated
foods like cottOn-seed meal and oil meal
contain the greatest amount of these three
fertilizing constituents, and straw contains
not fertilizing elements in themselves.
The next point to be borne in mind is
that each animal we feed appropriates to it
self of the elements of fertility in accord
ance with Its nature and wants, 30 that il
We supply the same amount of feed to diff
ferent animals we will not get exactly the
same amount of fertility in the axcremsnt
of each. A little reflection 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 buib up by the food, must
evidently give out in the excrement al he
fertilizers in the food supplied him. Ths
colt, or a horse gaining in weight, evident
ly retains some of these elements in the
body, as they go to help make up the N
creased weight. A cow giving milk trsus-
fers some OF the nitrogen to the milk in the
shape of caseine, -ancs some of the potash
and phosphoric acid in the shsps> of ash;
these are for the building up of the muscle
and bone of her calf. Evidently, then, ex-
cremens of the COW giving milk does not
contain all of the fertilizing elements sup.
piled in the food, since portion of then is
carried off in the milk. Sheep require
nitrogen, potash, ETC., for the wool and he
yolk that accompanies it, so that the N 8u-
ure 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, andthere
is not nitrogen, phosphoric acid or potash
in that, so the steer gives practically all of
the fersilzDg elements in his excremeut.
The growing pig, like the young of other
animals, takes out of the food fertiliz ng
elements 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, however, the amount
of fertilzing elements extracted from the
food by our farm animals is less than moat
would suppose. The bulk of the food con-
sumed 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 aai-
mails take out something like ten per cent.
of the fertility from the feed, while milch
COWS take out from twenty to twenty five
per cent. We have, then, second proposi-
ton to be borne in mind, viz: That the
amount of fertility taken out Of the food
varies from nothing with animals that gain
nothingi in weight, such as work horses and
grown cattle, ,.up to milch cows, which place
from twenty to twenty five per cent. of the
fertiizing elements in the milk.
The third important point to be remeIa-
bered is that a large part of the fertility is
in the urine. In general way it is fair to
estimate that three fourths of the fertiliZiug
elements under consideration are in the
liqnids and only one. fourth in the solid ex-
cremeut. This being true no space need be
occupied in showing the importance of saw
ing the LIQUID part of the manure.