Soils and fertilizers . to drain away from it,there is carried off in solution, and to some extent in sus-pension, more or less of the organic matter and plant-food 228 SOILS AND FERTILIZERS materials that are soluble in water and that consequentlyrepresent the most valuable part of the manure. As aboutone-half of the nitrogen and two-thirds of the potash of farmmanure is in a soluble condition, the possibility of loss byleaching is very great. Even phosphoric acid may thusbe removed. It is rather difficult to distinguish between the losses dueto fermentation and those caused by leaching. In a
Soils and fertilizers . to drain away from it,there is carried off in solution, and to some extent in sus-pension, more or less of the organic matter and plant-food 228 SOILS AND FERTILIZERS materials that are soluble in water and that consequentlyrepresent the most valuable part of the manure. As aboutone-half of the nitrogen and two-thirds of the potash of farmmanure is in a soluble condition, the possibility of loss byleaching is very great. Even phosphoric acid may thusbe removed. It is rather difficult to distinguish between the losses dueto fermentation and those caused by leaching. In an experi-ment conducted in Canada a carefully mixed quantity offarm manure was divided into two parts, one of which wasplaced in a bin under a shed, the other was exposed to theweather outside, in a similar bin. After a year the two por-tions were analyzed and the losses thus computed are statedin the following table. Table 50. • Losses by Fermentation Alone and by Fermen-tation AND Leaching Combined Constituent Lost. Organic matterNitrogen . .Phosphoric acidPotash . . 288. Protected manure more efEective. — Over a periodof fourteen years, in a three year rotation of corn, wheatand hay at the Ohio Experiment Station, stall manure gavean average yield of 30 percent more than did equal quantitiesof yard manure. This gives a fair basis on which to cal-culate whether it would pay to protect the manure when theexpense of doing so, and the quantity of manure produced,are considered. FARM MANURES 229 289. Reinforcing manure. — Various substances are in-corporated with animal manures, either in the stall or inthe heap, for the purposes of: (1) curtailing loss by leachingand fermentation, and (2) balancing the manure in order tobetter adapt it to the needs of most crops. The latter hasbeen mentioned in section 280. The materials commonlyused for these purposes are gypsum, kainit, acid phosphateand floats. Experiments at the Ohio Experiment Station indicate thatthe conserving effec
Size: 1857px × 1345px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauth, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfertilizers
