RELATIONS OF FEEDING TO FERTILITY. 37 



carbon which conies from the atmosphere. The farmer has nothing 

 to do with that, only to take what nature gives him. He is not to 

 supply that at all ; and need not trouble himself about it. So that, 

 when you are putting fat on your animals, instead of using up the 

 phosphoric acid and the nitrogen of your fodder, the animal is throw- 

 ing it out in the waste, and it all remains upon the farm. 



With a growing steer a portion of the phosphoric acid of the 

 fodder is assimilated b}' the animal, but oul^- a small percentage of 

 it ; so that far the larger part of all of that material which was in 

 your fodder remains upon the farm. Of the nitrogen, fed to a 

 ^•oung steer, possibly fifteen per cent, may be used up, leaving 

 eight^'-five per cent, upon the farm. Fed to a cow in milk a consid- 

 erable amount of the nitrogen is also used up, but never, probably 

 in any case, does it exceed twenty or twenty-five per cent. 



Now 3'ou raise the question right here, if you are an inquisitive 

 man, is this all theory, is it platform oratory, or is it fact? Let me 

 assure you that this has been under examination through feeding 

 trials, carried on by scientific men. They have recorded the figures, 

 but the results have been derived from actual feeding trials, where 

 an examination of the food was made before the feeding commenced, 

 and an examination of ever}' particle of the voidings of these ani- 

 mals was made after the food had been consumed. This has been 

 carried on in hundreds of experiments, and the averages are the 

 figures that we give to you. These are facts derived from practical 

 work 3'ou will see. There is nothing of theory about them. 



I would not have it understood, however, that the percentages 

 named anything more than approximate correctness, for it would be 

 quite difRoult when so man}- varying conditions obtain to express it 

 with accuracy. But it is plainh^ seen that a large part of the ele- . 

 ments of fertility existing in our stock fodder is still left to the farm 

 after the animals fed have assimilated that which their system calls 

 for. Thus of the one element, nitrogen, the amount used up in the 

 animal economy varies, with what the animal is doing, from nearly 

 nothing up to possibly twenty per cent., and probabl}' never greatly 

 exceeds tliat amount. With the other elements the range would not 

 be as groat. Of all the fertilizing material then fed out on the farm to 

 stock, in the form of farm products, probably eighth-five or more 

 per cent, remains on your hands after it is fed. 



You will see from this the bearing of this matter of feeding upon 

 the farm the products of the farm. Let us look a little further to 



