The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-11-02
News for the Farmer
HOW TO GET RICH LANDS
Livestock Manures; Their Place in
Soil improvement.
(By TAFT Butler.)

The Sonth has never given much
consideration to the production OF
livestock Perhaps less is
known of their economical produc-
ton, handling and use than OF any
other of the important matters con-
nected with the maintennce of soil
fertility.
Before we can determine the true
place of livestock or barnyard ma
nures in soil improvement we must
correctly estimate the extent OF their
economical porduction under aver
age farm conditions, give them their
proper value, and carefully count the
cost of putting them on the land.
Stable Manure Not a Complete Fer
%tilizer.
No one well informed any longer
claims that soil fertility cannot be
maintained without livestock, nor
that stable N alone will perma-
nently and economically keep up the
producing powers of the soil without
other fertilizers. Stable manures are
deficient in PHOSPHORUS, and on
Southern soils, where PHOSPHORUS IS
already generally present in too
small quantity. they must be sup
plemented with this plant food. They
also contain too little lime to supply
the needs of our lime-poor soils and
replenish the loss from teaching. The
fact that liberal applications of sta
BILE greatly increase crop
yields, which increase may be con-
tinued for long periods, has led many
into the error that stable manure
alone will permanently maintain soil
fertility. On soils fich in phosnhor-
GUS and lime stable n will
maintain yields for long periods, and
eve in soils poor in PHOSPHORUS and
lime, stable manure, by making the
supplies of these materials already
in the soil available for the use of
the growing crops, will increase or
maintain crop yields for considerable
periods; but after a time additional
PHOSPHORUS and lime will be profit
able and eventually absolutely nee
essary. On most Southern soils these
additional supplies of PHOSPHORUS
and lime will be found profitable
right from the start and will add
greatly to the value of the stable
manure.
The extent to which livestock ma
nures should be produced on the
farm is an important problem OF
farm management and n OF which
most careful consideration should be
given.
There car be no question but that
stable manure may be produced at
too great cost, but it is equally GER
tain that a larger quantity than is
usually produced on Southern farms
could be economically made and used
In fact, it is not saying too much to
state that more livestock manures
must be produced on u farms in
order to economically use those crops
and crop residue which must be
grown in order to economically main
tain soil fertility. When any farm
product can be used for stock feed
ing in such name that it will yield
a larger net profit from the livestock
or livestock products and the manure
than it will bring when sold from the
farm or when used direct as a fertil-
izer, it should be fed and then the
making of livestock manure becomes
an economic necessity in the best
farm management.
Net Returns Must Decide What Crops
May Best Be Fed
That there are many conditions
existing on every well managed
farm under which it is most profit
able to feed certain legume crops,
grown for the nitrogen they gather
from the air; to Craze or feed GER
tain cover crops and to utilize other
waste products for stock-feeding, is
pretty generally accepted by the stu
dents of farm management. But on
the other hand, it is equally true that
only when such use of these farm
products brings the largest net re-
turns, after deducting the cost of
feeding the livestock and the hand
ling of the manure from the value
of the livestock products and the ma
nure, should livestock manures be
produced. When a crop plowed I'M
der will bring a larger net return
than when fed to livestock there is
no gain in feeding it, for stable ma
nure will probably perform no mir
acle" that the crop plowed under will