Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1916 — NATIONS NATURAL FERTILIZER WEALTH WASTED [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NATIONS NATURAL FERTILIZER WEALTH WASTED

By Robert H. Moulton

1 —|ERTILIZERS are going to be tiigher Fthau they have ever been before, owing to the war. So acute has the potash situation become that Uncle Sam, among ail his oth&t diplomatic troubles, has been dickering with the allies and with Germany to let a little miserable shipment of 10 tons of pot- — ash fertilizer come through thebloek — a( ] e for the use of the department of agriculture’s farm experiment work. Yet with such a fertilizer famine staring the American farmer In the face, he has deliberately wasted during the last year between four hundred million and four hundred and fifty million dollars’ worth of manure, the best of all fertilizers. And this, according to authorities on agriculture apd fertilizer, is a regular yearly occurrence. It is not theoretical; it is actual loss, and the strangest part of the story is that the great bulk, if not all, of this waste, could be s»V£d Just as easily as not. In fact, most of it would be saved if American farmers were, for instance, Dutch or German farmers. It would be saved by the farmers of any of the old countries, where every pound of soil fertility is conserved as automatically and as naturally as though it were minted money. In Germany the size of the manure pile has long been an index to the wealth of the farmer. What the value would be of the increased crops that would result from this American plant food, now wasted, can hardly be estimated, but the increased yields of corn, wheat, potatoes, and all farm crops would amount to something enormous. On the basis of using this needlessly wasted strength in manure on the corn crop alone it Is estimated that the yield would be increased at least a billion and a half bushels, besides permanently improving the condition of the soil to a tremendous degree. In fact, a good many cornfields of the present day Would be so surprised at receiving their quota of this wasted soil fertility that they would not recognize themselves. And yet the Dutch or the German way of handling manure, efficient as it is, is not the best. Americans have discovered the way to prevent all waste in manure and it Involves no more labor or expense on the part of the farmer than his present methods through which he loses annually nearly half a billion dollars. The average successful farmer or gardener will say that this statement doesn’t apply to him; that he knows the value of good manure and uses every bit of it that he can get. But is he certain that he makes the best use of all his manure? When he hauls a ton of manure on to the field, is its fertilizing content all that it should be and is he sure thut from 10 to 50 per cent of its crop-pro-ducing strength has not been dissirated through leaching, flre-fanging, or lack of provision to absorb or conserve the animal urine? Take as an Instance the case of urine alone: A cow will produce 45 to 50 pounds of solid manure a day, but she will also make from 20 to 30 pounds of urine and fully one-half of the nitrogen in her

ration goes into that urine. So it Is most important to conserve the urine, for nitrogen is the most expensive element of manure or fertilizer. The other two important plant foods are potash and phosphorus. Even though manure is highly regarded by all good farmers, nevertheless there is probably no product of equal value which ts so miserably negleeted and regarding--which such real ignorance prevails. The first great source of loss is through the incomplete absorption of the urine, and it is not infrequent to see no attempt being made to save this portion of the manure in spite of the fact that it is richer in both nitrogen and potash than is the dung, and in spite of the fact that these fertilizers are more available for the plant In the urine than In the dung. The second greatest source of waste of manure is the loss incurred by leaching. If a good-sized manure pile is stacked up against the side of the stable where the water from the eaves can drip on it, or if it is piled on a slope or other exposed place, every heavy rain washes away crisp bank notes In the form of nitrogen and potash. These leached chemicals are the most valuable portions of the pile, the most available for plant forcing. The third common source of loss is that incurred by heating and fermenting. When mianure is put in piles it soon heats and throws off more or less gas and vapor. The fermentation which produces these gases is caused by the action of bacteria, or minute organisms. The bacteria which produce the most rapid fermentation in manure, in order to work their best, need plenty of air, or, more strictly, oxygen. Therefore, fermentation will be most rapid in loosely piled manure. Heat and some moisture are necessary for fermentation, but, If the manure is wet and heavy, fermentation is checked because the temperature is lowered and much of the oxygen excluded from the pile. The strong odor of ammonia, so common around a stable, is a simple evidence of the fermentation and the loss of nitrogen which is going on. Fresh manure loses in the process of decay from 40 to 70 per cent of its original weight. An 80-ton heap of cow manure left exposed for one year lost 60 per cent of its dry substance. Some tests conducted by the United States department of agriculture showed-'that two tons of horse manure exposed in a pile for five months lost 57 per cent of Its gross weight, 60 per cent of its nitrogen, 47 per cent of its phosphoric acid and 76 per cent of Its potash, or an average loss of three-fifths. Five tons of cow manure exposed for the same length of time in a compact pile lost, through leaching and dissipation of gases, 49 per cent in gross weight. 41 per cent of its nitrogen,. 19 per cent of its phosphoric add and 8 per cent of its potash. Here was a terrific waste, veritably, yet not greater than is to be found In most common farm practice.. What would any business man or any farmer think of a City teal estate investment or a land Investment which depreciated in value in. this wise? And What If he discovered that he could have prevented U at almost no cost or extra effort to himself?

The farm scientists and the theorists can preach all they want to about the economy of the farmer hnllding fine, big sheds to keep the rain off the manure or other such plans, but It goes without saying that tiie average farmer isn’t going to see it that way. But lie doesn’t have to! The remedy for such losses is simple In the extreme. In fact, exactly the right way of handling manure so as ' to save all this loss is about the cheapest, cleanest and altogether the easiest way to handle manure. The first step to prevent the loss of the fertilizing elements in manure is to provide plenty of bedding or litter in the stable to absorb and save all the liquid. The losses due to fermentation can be greatly checked by mixing horse manure with cow manure and making the temporary piles compact to as to exclude the air, and by thoroughly wetting the manure, which will assist in excluding the air and also reduce the temperature. The ideal way on the average farm is to follow the plan, nilthrough the year, of hauling manure directly from the stable and spreading it at once. There is a generally prevailing notion among larmers that if manure is hauled and spread in midsummer, the sun will scorch it to a cinder and burn all the good out of it. The government agricultural station in Maryland, just outside of Washington, decided to determine this matter accurately, and its analytical experiments have exploded two very common beliefs, the summer-burning theory being one of them. The other common belief which has been blown to atoms is that it is better to plow manure under in the fall than to leave It exposed . on the land’s surface during the winter and then plow it under in the spring. t> In the first instance manure spread In “burning July and allowed to stand until the following spring gave better results in carefully checked experiments than that spread in the following spt-lng just before plowing. In the second series of experiments, better yields were secured after allowing the manure to lie on top of the land all winter and plowing it under in the spring than were obtained from plowing it under in the fall.