Date of Award:

5-1934

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Plants, Soils, and Climate

Department name when degree awarded

Agronomy

Committee Chair(s)

D. W. Pittman

Committee

D. W. Pittman

Committee

D. C. Tingey

Committee

J. E. Greaves

Committee

Kenneth R. Stevens

Abstract

Antidating written human history the dung of animals, chalk, marl, wood ashes and other substances were probably used to increase the productivity of the soil. These practises found their way into the earliest farming activities of the Chinese, Persians, Greeks and Romans. (3)(11) In the Hebrew scriptures mention is made of the "Dung Gate". (10) This was undoubtedly a place given to the marketing of manures. That manure was used as a soil amendment in Asia Minor in Biblical times is not questioned. The famous Roman agricultural writer Cato (234 B.C.) wrote at length on manures and their handling. He gave bird manure preference and spoke of the manurial value of legumes. (3) Jethro Tull believed tillage was manure and contended that manures only benefit the soil because of improved physical condition after application. Liebig, the well known German agricultural chemist, gave prominence to the theory that small quantities of minerals added to the soil would suffice as manure. (1) Today the general ideas of soil fertility and the use of manures and fertilizers incorporates the views of these earlier students with better explanations of the relationships of one usage to the other. (19)(26)(29)(30) The study here reported is limited to other methods of handling barnyard manure and particularly to the recent development in Germany of what is known as "Hot Processing."

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