The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1915-01-21
raE yALCE Of AANCkE
VIA. Nsasre Wasted Esrh Year Means
t. tkf FaSner~

w!,icti we do aot understand and &c
much that We ignore. that we cannot
afford To ignore that part which We dc
not understand"
For instance. it is only lately that
we have come TO appreciate what soil
is made of and how grains and plants
manag to live and grow. We know
now that we must feed the roots of
growing crops just as We feed growing
calves. and with about as much care.
without going deeply into chemistry
of this food supply, we have learned
that The plant bill of fare consists main
Iy of three things. namely: Nitrogen,
phosphoric acid and potash. Where
these foods are easily available. We
have good crops; where they are alb
sent or locked up in dry heavy earth,
the plants starve
Experience has taught us further
that we can set the table, from which
the plants get their sustenance, in two
ways-either by buying their food by
the pound or by saving for them our
barnyard manure. Modern chemistry
has proved that for this purpose
half ton of fresh horse manure con-
tains five pounds of nitrogen. three and
a half pounds of phosphoric acid and
"a similar amount of COW manure con-
tai dc nf nit nd
two and a half pounds of phosphoric
acid. This includes both the liquid and
the solid manures. In fact, the liquid
manure is the more important of the
two. Great care should be taken so
that the main part of it can be saved
The easier the farmer makes it for
his growing plants to gather this food,
the better crops he can promise him
self. He fattens his wheat crops, and
his other crops, just as surely as he
fattens his steers. If, In thus fatten-
ing his corn fields, he goes to the store
and buys nitrates at Is cents per pound
and phosphoric acid and potash both
at cents per pound he will find that
the horse manure in his own barnyard
on this basis. If properly conserved
and properly spread, is worth 1921 per
ton his COW manure. $2O2 per ton
and his pig manure 1929 per ton.
1t seems thus that saving the pro-
duct of the stable lowers the high cost
of plant living considerably. when we
consider that twenty 1000 pound cows
will give one hundren and forty-sia
tons of manure in six months. To be
strictly accurate in the cash value of {,
product, generally considered little
better than worthless, for every thous-
and pounds weight of stock, whether
horse. COW or swine, the manure each
year is worth from horse $2774, from
Il COW S29.27 and from that weight of
hogs $4,000
That is, however, if it is saved right
and used right. 1t has been estimated
that the way manure is handled by the
farmers of this country that almost
enough is wasted each year to pay the
taxes of all the farm lands in the U. S. |
There are two main leakes or ave-
nues of dissipation in connection with
this food supply of plants-first, at the |
stable. and second at the field Just as
one can ruin any other good hay crop
by not handling it right, so one can
damage . good manure crop.
Manure is at its best when fresh
and Ia sensitive to several demoral-
12inS Influences. 1t cannot stand rain
because water teaches the best part of
1t away: it cannot stand dryness be-
cause it ferments and the nitrogen
eVaporateS; in fact, it cannot stand at
all. Fresh manure should be spread
fresh,
The manure found in the barn yard
in the spring or that found in little
heaps in the field is only about half
as good TOR plant food as the same ma
nure would have been pitched ON a
spreadcr from the stable and scattered
over The land as soon as the load was
complete.
Next to spreading 1t fresh, the i'm
port1nt thing is to spread it finely
pu,Vort7ed ard to spread it evenly.
This must be done with mechanical
pu'verizer, because the hand that
wte'ds tue fork from the wagon ton
can do no more than scatter it in
chunks
So 'mportant is the manner of sprea
dins manure essential to its preserva-
tiou that the University of Wisconsin
III Bulletin No. . 81 claims that I, is
advisable to apply the manure to q
hesd IS aGcn as it is made. Even win
ter sDreading is worth while.
II is equally vehement in regard to
puiveriz2sion. ITO make itself worth
while. manure must come in coptan.