THE EFFECT OF THE RATION ON THE VALUE OF 



THE MANURE. 

 J. M. Bartlett. 



In digestion experiments with steers, where both the feces and 

 the urine were saved, potash and phosphoric acid determinations 

 as will as nitrogen were made in order that the fertilizing value 

 of the manure from the diiTerent rations could be compared. It 

 will be noticed that no figures are given in the table on page 26 

 for the percentage? of potash found in the urine. The deter- 

 minations were made, but owing to a probable error in calculat- 

 ing the results from the dry to the fresh bases, which at this 

 time cannot be corrected, they are omitted. Other experiments 

 show that the potash of the food is practically all given off in the 

 excretions, so the figures given for potash in the urine are ob- 

 tained by subtracting the potash of the feces from the total 

 amount taken in the food. 



Only traces of phosphoric acid were found in the urine. In 

 the first experiment with hay alone, more nitrogen was found in 

 the excretions than was taken in the food. This discrepancy 

 was probably due to insufficient nitrogen in the ration to main- 

 tain the animals and they lost flesh, excreting some body nitro- 

 gen. Therefore the feces from this ration relatively contains 

 more nitrogen and value liigher than they should, for it is evi- 

 dent that the animals could not continue for anv length of time 

 to give off more nitrogen than they received. 



The results are given in the tables which follow: 



The first table on page 26 gives the weights of food eaten and 

 feces and urine excreted for each animal for the five days that 

 the experiment occupied and the second table contains the per- 

 centages of fertilizing ingredients in both food and excreta. 



The tables on page 27 contain the amount of fertilizing ingre- 

 dients excreted by each animal and the total amount of fertiliz- 

 ing ingredients in the food, feces and urine, also the percentages 

 excreted. 



