“Take such a farm as Mr. Dewey’s, that we have already referred to. No manure or food has been purchased; or at any rate, not one-tenth as much as has been sold, and yet the farm is more productive to-day than when it was first cleared of the forest. He has developed the manure from the stores of latent plant-food previously existing in the soil and this is the way farmers generally make manure.”
[ CHAPTER XI.]
THE VALUE OF MANURE DEPENDS ON THE FOOD—NOT ON THE ANIMAL.
“If,” said I, “you should put a ton of cut straw in a heap, wet it, and let it rot down into manure; and should place in another heap a ton of cut corn-fodder, and in another heap a ton of cut clover-hay, wet them, and let them also rot down into manure; and in another heap a ton of pulped-turnips, and in another heap a ton of corn-meal, and in another heap a ton of bran, and in another a ton of malt-sprouts, and let them be mixed with water, and so treated that they will ferment without loss of ammonia or other valuable plant-food, I think no one will say that all these different heaps of manure will have the same value. And if not, why not?”
“Because,” said Charley, “the ton of straw does not contain as much valuable plant-food as the ton of corn-fodder, nor the ton of corn-fodder as much as the ton of clover-hay.”
“Now then,” said I, “instead of putting a ton of straw in one heap to rot, and a ton of corn-fodder in another heap, and a ton of clover in another heap, we feed the ton of straw to a cow, and the ton of corn-fodder to another cow, and the ton of clover to another cow, and save all the solid and liquid excrements, will the manure made from the ton of straw be worth as much as the manure made from the ton of corn-fodder or clover-hay?”
“No,” said Charley. —“Certainly not,” said the Doctor. —“I am not so sure about it,” said the Deacon; “I think you will get more manure from the corn-fodder than from the straw or clover-hay.”
“We are not talking about bulk,” said the Doctor, “but value.” “Suppose, Deacon,” said he, “you were to shut up a lot of your Brahma hens, and feed them a ton of corn-meal, and should also feed a ton of corn-meal made into slops to a lot of pigs, and should save all the liquid and solid excrements from the pigs, and all the manure from the hens, which would be worth the most?” —“The hen-manure, of course,” said the Deacon, who has great faith in this kind of “guano,” as he calls it.