Manures and the principles of manuring

by Charles Morton Aikman

In the plant, phosphorus is present chiefly in the albuminoids; and its absorption from the soil takes place in greatest quantity during the period of maximum growth. In beans and peas an oil containing phosphorus has been found.

Occurrence in Animals.

That phosphorus in different forms exists in animal tissue is well known. It is found both in the brain and in the nerves, as well as in nearly all the fluids of the animal body. It is, however, in the bones that it is most abundant, the mineral portion of which is almost entirely made of phosphate of lime,—a fact which renders bones such a valuable artificial manure. Altogether, phosphoric acid occurs in the animal body to the extent of 2.3 per cent. There is a point which we shall have occasion to draw the student's attention to further on in discussing the nature of farmyard manure—and that is, that the urine of the common farm animals is practically devoid of phosphoric acid.

Sources of Loss of Phosphoric Acid in Agriculture.

As we have already done in the case of nitrogen, we may now attempt to form some conception of the sources of loss and gain of phosphoric acid in the soil. The sources of loss may be divided into natural and artificial. Of natural sources of loss we have only one, and that is loss by drainage.

Loss of Phosphoric Acid by Drainage.

We have already seen that the condition in which phosphoric acid is present in the soil is as insoluble phosphate. In drainage-water it occurs in mere traces. Minute though the amount seems when stated as percentage, and small as it appears beside the loss (from the same source) of nitrogen, it is yet, if considered for large areas, sufficiently striking. Thus it has been estimated that in the river Elbe there is carried off by drainage from the fields of Bohemia 2-3/4 million pounds (1200 tons) of phosphoric acid annually. This, it is true, is a very trifling amount compared with the annual loss of nitrogen from an equal area; but then it must be remembered, on the other hand, the sources of gain to the soil of this ingredient are not so numerous as are those of nitrogen, the only sources of phosphoric acid being in the manure applied to the soil, and that coming from the gradual disintegration of phosphatic minerals.

Artificial Sources of Loss.

The other sources of loss may be classed under the term artificial, and are connected with agricultural practice. Just as we have seen that in the case of nitrogen enormous quantities of that substance are constantly being removed from the soil in those crops which are consumed off the farm, so, too, enormous quantities of phosphoric acid are being removed in the same way. As illustrating this fact, it may be mentioned that Professor Grandeau has recently estimated that in the entire crops grown in France in one year there are about 298,200 tons of phosphoric acid; while the amount returned in the dung of farm animals is only 157,200, or only about one-half of what is removed in the crops, leaving a deficit of 147,000 tons to be made good by the addition of artificial phosphatic manures, if the fertility of the soil is to be maintained. The same authority has calculated that in the bones of the entire farm animals in France there is no less a quantity than 76,820 tons of phosphoric acid.

As an example of how, in many cases, the amount of phosphoric acid removed from the farm is very often much greater than that restored, a case quoted by Crusius may be cited. This was a farm of 670 acres (Saxon) which had received only farmyard manure, and from which, during sixteen years, 985.67 cwt. of phosphoric acid had been sold off in the crops; while only 408.33 cwt. had been restored in the manure, leaving a loss of 577.34 cwt.