The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-07-06
STOP TREMENDOUS
MANURE WASTE
Farmers Urged by Assistant Secretary
Carl Vrooman to Put an End to
Annual Billion Dollar Loss of
Fertilizing Materials -
Methods Suggested.


/, Methods Suggested.
Farmers areu rged in statement is
sued to-day by Assistant Secretary Car
Nrooman TO make every effort TO saw
: the vast amount of valuable manure nov
allowed to go to waste in this country
Assistant Secretary Vrooman estimate
that one-half the manure produced II
! the United States is not used as ferti
lizer, there being an annual loss of mate
rial worth twelve hundred dollars--onc'
and a half the value OF the country
1916 wheat crop.
"This is not a wild guess" he contfn
ues, but very shrewd and eonserva
tive estimate based on reliable statistics
IL has been found that each horse oil
mule produces annually S27 worth of ma
nure las compared with commercial fer
tilizersl each head OF cattle $50 worth
each hog So worth. Calculating from the
1910 census figures for number of ami
mails on farms-82, 900 900 cattle, $4,000.
900 horses and mules, 5S,000000 swine
and 54,500,000 sheep and goats,--the to.
tai value of manure produced is found
to be about $2,46l 100000. Recent in
vestigations by the department of agri-
culture indicate that at least half of
this great wealth of fertilizing material
| is sheer waste. In some good general
! farming sections not more than l5 per
cent. of the manure produced is used.
Even in the most intensive dairy regions,
where cows are largely stall fed and
comparatively great care taken with the
manure, the loss seems to be approx
mately 20 per cent.
Here, then, is job for the American
farmer, worthy of his utmost effort and
in keeping with the spirit of this great
hour in American history To save
billion dollars worth of manure is a
Herculean task-a veritable latter-day
Augean stable job,-for it means the
handling of literally millions of tons
of dung and litter 1t means the con-
struction of concrete manure pits, of
paved feeding pens or sheds, and greatly
increased care in the conservation and
use of bedding materials. 1t means
lot of work, but ii is work that can be
done at odd hours and moments, and
work that will pay tremendous divi-
dends, not only as a war measure, but
conceivably for all time, for ii we once
get the habit OF making full use OF our
available manure supply we are not like
ly to lapse into the old, wasteful ways
again.
"The cheapest and best way to handle
manure, when convenient, is to haul it
to the field and spread it daily, or at
least every two or three days. In this, il
plenty OF bedding be used, practically all
the valuable constituents of the manure
are saved since teaching after the ma
nure is on arabic land merely serves to
put the fertilizing materials where they |
ought to be. In this way, too, loss |
through heating, or "fre.fanging," is
avoided.
MANY farmers, however, are not so |
as to make it profitable for |
them TO handle manure in this way, For |
such farmers, the concrete manure pit |
offers an ideal way of saving manure.
Such pit need not entail great expense.
A pit three feet deep, IL feet long and 1
six feet wide, with walls and floors five 1
inches thick, will serve the needs of the
average farm. In ground that does not
ave in, only an inside form will be
needed for such pit, except where the
concrete extends few inches above the
yround to prevent flooding by surface
water. The floor should be reinforced
With woven wire fencing, put in after
bout two inches of cement has been laid,
he section of fencing being cut long
nough to bend up few inches at Ell
her end into the side walls. When the
enforcing has been put in, the remain
ng three inches of the floor is laid, and
he forms for the side walls set up and
sed Immediately. Use one part cement, /
wo of sand, and four OF screened gravel.
pit of this kind is large enough to
old the accumulation of manure on the
verage farm until such time as it can
e hauled conveniently to the field and
pread.
another good way to save manure, es-
ecially in the case of hogs or of beef
attic, is OF have a concrete paved feed
IT, preferably under a shed roof. Where
ne farmer cannot afford a paved floor,
heap open feeding shed may be made
, serve the purpose very well, if alum :
ant bedding is used to absorb the val
able liquid manure. In such a feeding
It or shed, the manure is allowed to
itner undeT tne ltei OF the dHilndis,
lch days bedding being strewn over
lie well tramped accumulation below.
ome farmers using this system arrange
leir feed racks so that they can be
Used from time to time, making it pos
BILE to feed till several feet of solidly
icked manure has accumulated under
e shed. 1t has been shown that ma
ire suffers little from heating and
aching when handled in this way.
"The feeding shed serves the purpose
giving the general farm, or the beef
title farm, something OF the advantage
the matter OF manure saving held by
e intensive dairy farm. 1t has been
own by farm management surveys that
e manure saved on the American farm
der present conditions is almost ex-
tlv proportional to the number of ami
ais stall-fed on the farm, and that
e manure of animals not stabbed has
nv little effect on yields, except in
ses where field crops are "hogged- off,
otherwise pastured down or where
sture is used in a rotation.
This great war has brought home to
Americans. as il has never been en-
ASKED before, the fact that we are the
,rId's champion MASTERS Without