(52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



abundant supply of muck, and Avlicn dry, there is no better absorbant 

 than this. Peat, or muck, varies greatly in its composition and 

 value, some being almost worthless for direct application to the land, 

 while other produces immediate good effect; but however trifling its 

 present value as taken from its native deposit, it is not only of use 

 to save the urine, but by means of the ammonia generated, a large 

 amount of excellent food for plants is developed from the crude vege- 

 table matter which is abundant even in the poorest ; or, in other 

 words, the vegetable matter is prepared or cooked so as to be avail- 

 able as food to growing plants. 



Stockhardt in his field lectures, says : "A farmer who does not 

 carefully preserve the urine of his house and live stock, acts like a 

 miner who throws away dull, rich silver ore, because it does not 

 shine like white silver. 



" A farmer who buys guano, bone dust, or other artificial manures, 

 but does not look carefully .after his drainings, is an extravagant 

 farmer ; for he brings the same thing into his yard at great cost, 

 which he might have for nothing, if he did not suffer it to flow or 

 evaporate uselessly away from the same." 



Another saving to wliich special heed should be given, is that of 

 bones. Not a bone upon the premises of the ftirmer, the butcher, 

 the soap boiler, or elsewhere, should be wasted. They are worth a 

 great deal too much. The value of a manure depends chiefly upon 

 its capacity to furnish the needful constituents of crops. One of 

 these, and the one which next to nitrogen is the most difiicult and 

 costly to supply, is phosphoric acid. An analysis of bones shows 

 that in every one hundred pounds we have thirty-three pounds of 

 organic matter, consisting of gelatine and fiit, and composed of 

 nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen; and fifty five pounds of 

 phosphate of lime, consisting of nearly equal proportions of phos- 

 phoric acid and lime. Thus it is seen that something more than 

 a quarter part of the weight of bone consists of phosphoric acid. 



This exists in most soils in limited quantities, and is usually the 

 first among the necessary elements of plants, to fail, and especially is 

 this the case if the land be cropped for grain. The ashes of wheat 

 (that is, the mineral portion of the grain, which it must obtain from 

 the soil, and cannot get from the atmosphere or from moisture,) are 

 found to consist of forty-six per cent, of phosphoric acid ; of barley, 



