78 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



They are an approximation that will serve the purpose desired to 

 show the relative values of different foods for manure. Professor 

 Collier analyzed for me a sample of cotton seed meal, richer than 

 the one given. In feeding, it is said to require twelve pounds of 

 haj' to produce one of growth. Not so iiuuli of the concentrated 

 foods would be required. Dr. Lawes estimated that after allowance 

 for materials that enter into the growth of the animal and slight un- 

 aA'oidable losses, the manure left after feeding these foods would 

 stand as follows : 



Swedish turnips $ 91 



Corn meal 6 65 



Good hay 6 43 



Clover hay 9 64 



Bran 14 59 



Middlings 14 36 



Peas 13 38 



Linseed cake 19 72 



Cotton seed meal 27 86 



Oat straw 2 90 



In American practice, I do not believe that these values will be 

 found low enough by at least one-third. Nitrogen is not of so much 

 moment in our practice as in English farming, for reasons noted 

 further along. Whatever the absolute values of manures from 

 these foods in practice, it is clearly' the fact that the manure from a 

 ton of cotton seed meal is worth four times as much as from a ton 

 of corn meal, and bran twice as much. The proportions in which 

 the minerals and nitrogen exist in each food, will modify these theo- 

 retical data in application to diverse soils and even crops, jet they 

 will be close approximations in practice, to their relative values. 

 All theories are worthless that will not stand, or do not rest upon 

 the crucial test of practice. The one great question with English 

 feeders is the manurial value of food purchased. The}* have long 

 bought our linseed meal and are now importing heavily* of our cotton 

 seed meal. Much of it is fed to stock in pastures, to enrich them. 

 Lawes and Gilbert, in an exact experiment, fed a given number of 

 sheep on two acres of ground, one ton of cotton seed meal. On 

 two adjoining acres they fed the same number with one ton of corn 

 meal. 'J'hey cut two crops of ha^' the first 3'ear. These, with the 

 first crop of the next year, gave 1,500 lbs. more of hay for ground 



