The weekly soliphone. (Paragould, Greene County, Ark.) 1907-1918, 1917-07-12
STOP TREMENDOUS
WASTE OF MANURE
Put An End to Annual Billion Dol
lar Loss of Fertilizing Mater
ials-Methods Suggested.

washington, july f.-IafmefS
are urged i'll a statement issued to-
day by Assistant Secretary Carl
Vrooman to make every effort to
save the vast amount of valuable
manure now allowed to so to waste
in this country. Assistant SeCre-
tary Vrooman estimates that one
half the manure produced in the
United States is not used as a fer
tilizer, there being an annual loss
of material worth twelve hundred
million dollars-once and a half the
value of the country's 1916 wheat
crop.
"This is not wild guess" he CON
,tinues, "but a very shrewd and con
servative estimate based on re
liable statistics 1t has been found
that each horse or mule produces
annually $27 worth of manure (as
ers)); each head of cattle $29|
worth; each hog SIS worth. Calcu
latng from the 1910 census fig
ures for number of animals on
farms-62, 100000 cattle, $4,000
600 horses and mules, 5S,000,000
swine, and 54,500,000 sheep and
goats-the total value of manure
produced is found to be about ST.
461, 100000. Recent Investigations
by the Department of Agriculture
indicate that at least half of this
great wealth of fertilizing material
is sheer waste. In some good gen
eral farming sections not more than
is per cent of the manure prOduc-
ed is used Even in the most inten-
sive dairy regions, whore COWS are
largely stall fed and comparatively
great care taken with the manure,
the loss seems to be approximately
25 per cent.
"Hore, then, is a job for the
American farmer, worthy of his ut
most effort and in keeping with the
spirit of this great hour in Ameri-
can history. TO save a billion dol
lars worth of manure is a Hercu-
lean 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
construction of concrete manure
pits, of paved feeding pens or sheds,
and greatly increased care in the
conservation and use of bedding
materials. 1t means a lot of work,
but it is work that can be done at
odd hours and moments, and work
that will pay tremendous dividends,
not only as war measure, but
concoivably for all time, for if we
once get the habit OF making fun
use of our available manure sup
ply we are not likely to lapse into
the old, wasteful ways again.
The cheapest and best way to
handle manure, where convenient,
is to haul it to the field and spread
daily, or at least every two or three
days In this way. if plenty Of
bedding is used, practically all the
valuable constituents of the man
ure are saved since teaching after
the manure is on arabic land mere
ly serves to put the fertilizing ma
terials where they ought to be.
In this way. too, loss through heat |
ing, or 'flre--fanging, is avoided.
MANY farmers. however. are not !
so situated as to make it profitable |
for them to handle manure in this
way. For such farmers the con
crete manure pit offers an ideal
way of saving manure, Such pit
need not entail great expense. A
pit 3 feet deep, Il feet long and
feet wide, with walls and floors
5 inches thick, will serve the needs
Of the average farm. In ground