Middlebury Register

Cost of Manuring
An elaborate foreign report presents detailed statistics of the comparative cost under European conditions of manuring in systems of farming in which (1) a large amount of stock, (2) a small amount of stock and (3) no stock is kept, the comparative merits of commercial fertilizers, green manuring, night soil, sewage, etc., being discussed.
The author concludes that green manuring, supplemented by commercial fertilizers, is suited to almost all conditions. Under favorable soil conditions manuring with artificial fertilizers may be exclusively practiced. The economy of the use of night soil, sewage, sweepings, factory waste, composts, etc., and bought stable manure depends upon local conditions, and these materials should be used only when they are cheaper than the more generally applicable system of green manuring supplemented by commercial fertilizers.
Although it is believed that in some cases the circumstances may warrant the reduction or total abandonment of stock raising and the substitution of some of the above systems of manuring, it is not safe to conclude that such is generally advisable. In deciding this question there are other important factors besides cost of manure to be taken into consideration.