Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 263, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1916 — MAKING the FARM PAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MAKING the FARM PAY

By PROF. P. G. HOLDEN,

Former Dean of the lowa Agricultural College.

WASTING THE FARM MANURE

The farmer who sells 1,000 pounds of red clover hay worth from $4 to $7, sells from his farm as much soil fertility as he would if he sold a 1,000pound steer or two fat hogs weighing 500 pounds apiece; and the hogs or the steer would bring him from $75 to SIOO. In 5Q bushels of corn there is about sls worth of soil fertility; in 100 pounds of butter about 4 cents worth of fertility; or in other words from 70 to 85 per cent of the fertilizing elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potash taken from the soil by crops are returned to the soil if the crops are fed to» animals arid the manure put back on the land. It is well to remember that manure represents fertility which has been taken from the soil by crops and must be returned to it if productiveness is to be maintained. It not only adds to the store of plant food in the soil by returning a large per cent of the nitrogen, phosphorus and potash removed by crops, but it also, renders the native plant food of the soil more available. It improves its physical condition, makes it warm and enables it to receive and retain more moisture; lets air into the soil, aids in the development of bacteria and helps to prevent washing. No Substitute Found. No substitute at presenT known is capable fef completely filling the place of farm manure. Notwithstanding its great value, there is probably no material on the farm in which so great and needless waste occurs. It is a common sight in almost any section to see stables and feed lots situated upon the bank of a stream or ditch where the most valuable portion of the manure will pass into the stream.

There is no soil so fertile that its producing power cannot be eventually exhausted by continued cropping which takes away fertility and returns nothing. We must not forget that the manure crop does not belong to the farmer, but to the soil, and must be returned to the soil. Manures are carelessly thrown out where they are washed into the streams or the fine particles leached away or burned by self-generated heat and robbed of a large portion of their nitrogen. Can you expect manures to be worth much after they have been washed by rains, dried by winds, burned by combustion, rooted over by hogs- and tramped into the ground by stock? Interesting Experiment. A very interesting experiment was conducted at Cornell university to show the effect of weathering and leaching upon the value of manure. Four thousand pounds cf manure from the horse stable composed of 3.319 of excrement and 681 pounds of straw were placed out of doors in a pile and left exposed for six months. (April 25 to September 22.) At the end of this period out of 4,000 pounds only 1,730 pounds remained —a loss of 57 per cent of the gross weight and 65 per cent loss in fertilizing value. During the same period 10,000 pounds of manure from the cow stables were exposed for six months. The cow manure showed a loss of 5,125 pounds, or 49 per cent of the gross weight and 32 per cent of its value. Al,ooo-pound horse will produce about nine tons of manure a year (without litter) valued in plant food at about sls. A 1,000-pound dairy cow will produce 12 tons of manure a year worth approximately S2O. One hundred dairy cows weighing 1,000 pounds each will produce in one year about 2,400,000 pounds of manure worth over $2,000.

Don’t you think that $2,000 Is worth looking after? The Ohio experiment station found that 48 grade polled Angus steer calves weighing on an average 448 pounds each at the time they were stabled, produced in 13 months 699,504 pounds of manure, nearly 350 tons including bedding. This amount of manure is worth in plant food element nearly S7OO. Value of Stabld Manure. The money value of the stable manure produced on Wisconsin farms for example amounts to millions each year. The fertilizer Ingredients contained in the manure produced in one year by the different classes of farm animals are approximately the following ■mounts per head —dairy cows S2O, other cattle and. horses sls, sheep $2 ■nd swine $4. The total value of the

fertilizer elements contained in the manure produced by these animals during the year is as follows: 1,504,000 milk cows, fertilizer value of manure produced $30,080,000 1,146,000 other cattle, fertilizer value of manure produced 22,920,000 652,000 horses, fertilizer value of manure —produced 9,780,000 822,000 sheep, fertilizer value of manure produced 1,644,000 2,030,000 swine, fertilizer value of manure produced 8,120,000 Total value of the manure produced annually $72,544,000 by the farm animals in the state is worth twice as much as that annually removed from the soil by crops. If all the fertilizer elements contained in the manure produced on Wisconsin farms could be saved and properly utilized, the fertility of the soil in the state might be maintained and even improved, since the fertility in purchased

feeds brought into the state more than covers that in agricultural products sold by Wisconsin farmers. Enormous Waste of Manure. The United States department of agriculture estimated the number of cattle in the United States on January 1, 1910,.at 70,000,000; sheep, 57,216,000; swine, 47,782,060. If we assume that ten sheep or hogs are equivalent to one cow or steer in manure production, we shall have a total of over 80,000,000 cattle. They are no doubt equivalent to 60,000,000 1,000-pound'cattle. If these are yarded four months each winter, there should be a total manure production during that period of 150,000,000 tons, having a crop-producing value of at least $200,000,000 above all cost of handling. It is a very conservative estimate to place the waste of this manure under the present system of handling at 25 per cent, or $50,000,000 annually. It is no doubt tvyice that amount.

Manure is lost by weathering, leaching, heating, rotting, by piling in heaps in the field and letting stand before spreading. If you cannot spread it soon after it is produced, store it in a pit or manure shed. Of all the ways In which manure is handled, piling it in heaps in the field is the most wasteful. It is worse than leaving it under the barn eaves and letting it leach out there, because of the waste of labor involved in hauling it to the field to be thrown away. The overgrowth of lodged and halffilled grain ower such spots ought to be sufficient to convince any man of the mistake of such a method; yet there are thousands of farmers who are still piling manure in the fields. Value of Liquid Manure. A greater portion of the fertilizing value of the manure is found in the liquid portion. The full effect of neither the solid n'or the liquid portion can be obtained except when used in connection With the other. If the liquid is permitted to flow away or become leached out by rain and separated from the solid portion, whether in yard or field, it carries with it the plant fbod. The only right way to handle manure is to collect the liquid by abundant absorbents as'straw, get it promptly to the field, spread It there at dhee and let sunshine and rain do their work. The sunshine will evap~orate the waler und~the ratnwhtchfoH lows will dissolve the salts and wash them into the soil where they »r® - needed..

Proper Way to Apply Manure to the Land.

Wasteful Method of Handling Manure.