FERTILIZATION OF GRASS-LANDS. 75 



ments than one that is worked but little, because more is 

 required to build up the bones and muscles of one animal 

 than of the other. Now, I admit that. But there is another 

 little query comes in there, and I should like to have the 

 doctor exj)lain it a little more fully. If we work a horse, we 

 wear down the tissues, we wear down the bone material to 

 some extent, we wear down the sinews to some extent. 

 What becomes of the material that constituted the bone, 

 the muscle, and the sinew, that is worn down by labor? 

 Does not that pass into the excrements, to be thrown off 

 with them ? Would not the urine of the hard-worked horse 

 have a little more ammonia in it than that of a horse that 

 is standing still in the stable ? 



Dr. Nichols. It might possibly. 



Mr. Whitakee. We may lose some of it in the road ; 

 but, if we could use that horse where we could save all the 

 excrement that came from it, we should find that we had 

 just about the same amount from the hard-working horse 

 that Ave had from the stall-fed one that is not worked. 

 There is nothing lost. We can change it and modify it in 

 various ways ; but we cannot destroy a single particle. 



Now, there is another point with regard to the fertilization 

 of grass-land. It is generally said, that, if you spread ma- 

 nure on a side-hill in the fall of the year, you will lose it all 

 before sj^ring. I have spread manure on grass-land on a 

 very steep hill, and at the foot of the hill there is a basin 

 into which the water from the hill comes ; and I have failed 

 to detect any of the elements of manure, or urine, or any 

 thing else that was put on that grass-land, in the water in the 

 basin. I have found, that in coming down the hill, and com- 

 ing through the grass, the fertilizing material filters in, and 

 is left on the side-hill, and that I do not lose my fertilizing 

 matter by placing it on that hillside. I have tested that 

 water a great many times, and have tried it in various ways, 

 and have failed to find it impregnated at all with the ma- 

 nure that was put on the hill. 



Dr. Nichols. I wish to say that the experience of Mr. 

 Whitaker differs from my own experience, and perhaps it 

 differs from that of others. I have not failed to find the 

 valuable salts in the water which flowed from fields to which 

 those salts have been applied ; and this is especially so in 



