The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-12-06
PRODUCTION OF MANURE.

Facts ELECTED From Experiments Conduct
ed at the Cornell University Station.
During the winters of 1912 and
1923 experiments were made to deter
mine the proportion Of nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid and potash recovered in the
weddings of the various domestic animals
from the amount of these ingredients
consumed in the food under the varied
conditions which our domestic animals
are usually kept. In some instances the
ration was made highly nitrogenous for
the express purpose of comparing. the
percentage of plant food recovered with
that recovered from rations containinga
Eluch less proportion of nitrogen. In
general, however, the food fed during
the experiments was similar in quantity
and quality to that usually fed on the
university farm.
AS the values given in this bulletin
have been based on those given for the
value of commercial fertilizers, it does
not follow that any farmer under all
conditions will be able to get that value
from the manure any more than he is
guaranteed to receive that value from
the same amount of plant food in COM
mercial fertilizers. These values, how
ever, afford means of comparing the
values of manures made by the different
kinds of domestic animals and vary from
$24.43 per year from calves to sos. SO per
year from pigs. The intermediate values,
by the bye, are: Sheep, $4,000; cows,
$29.27; horses, $s7.74. 1t is evident from
these experiments that barnyard man
ures when produced from fairly nitro
geneous food, literally FED, contains a
much larger proportion of nitrogen than
either phosphoric acid or potash, and
that where commercial fertilizers are
used with such manures the most eco
nomical application will be secured by
applying a much larger proportion of
phosphoric acia and potash in the COM
mercial manures than is usually sold in
complete fertilizers.
AS the value of the manure depends SO
largely on the character of the food con-
sumed tables are furnished giving such
values. From these it is made evident
that of all foods fed meat scrap con-
tanned the largest amount of plant food.
and its value was also the greatest. The
great fertilizer value assigned to this
food was due to the large per cent of
nitrogen which it contained. The value
of the potash in this food was only about
one-half the value Of the potash in the
clover hay, while the value of the nitro
gen and phosphoric acid was more than
i've times as great as the value of these
constituents contained in the hay. While
meat scrap heads the list of foods in
value of it's fertilizing constituents, it
does not follow that its feeding value is
above that of other foods
The feeding value and the fertilizer
value of foods are separate and entirely
distinct values, and care should be taken
not to use them INTERCHANGEABLE. While
food may have q high feeding value
for certain purposes, its fertilizer value
may be correspondingly low. To illus
trate this point, cornmeal has high
feeding value for the production of fat
meat, while. on the other hand, it's fer
tilizer value is very low, being only
about q times more than wheat straw.
Of the vegetable foods cottonseed meal
has the greatest value in fertilizing con-
stituents, and as was the case with meat
scrap the greater part Of the value is in
the proportionately large amount of nj
trogen which it contains, and also like
meat scrap the fertilizer value is equal
to the selling price as cattle food in
our markets.
Cornmeal has low fertilizer value.
Not only is it poorin phosphoric acid and
potash, but it is also low in nitrogen, the
total value, $500 per ton, being only a
little more than two-thirds of the ferti-
izer value of clover hay. While corn
meal ranks high as food its fertilizer
value is low and is often overestimated
by many stock feeders. The clover hay
fed in this series Of experiments had
fertilizer value of $7.55 per ton. which is
often as much as the selling price of
clover hay. 1t is true with the hay also
that the greater part Of the fertilizer
value is in the nitrogen which it con-
tains, although the mineral matter con-
tanned in the hay is considerably more
than that in cornmeal.
When we compare the fertilizer value
of cornmeal and clover hay, we may ex-
pect greater value in the manure pro-
duced from ton of clover hay than
from ton of cornmeal. Oats have a
fertilizer value of $670 per ton, which
is greater than that Of cornme.1, but
less than that of clover hay. Wheat
bran is the richest in mineral matter of
our common concentrated foods, having
fertilizer value Of $12.30, of which the
phosphoric acid and potash has value
of $474, being much larger proportion
of mineral matter than that contained
in the other concentrated foods fed in
these experiments.
The Plymouth Rock.
ATennessee correspondent of The Fan
ciers' journal, who has no use for the In
dian game thp old T,irbt Ryo L,,,o o,,d