218 AGRICULTURE. 



weight : so that, when we speak of manure, four of nitrogen 

 is five of ammonia. Mr. Huxtable lays down this pro- 

 position that, if you give to an animal food containing 

 nitrogen, one-fourth of that substance will be appropriated 

 to his carcass, and the other three-fourths will pass away 

 in his excrements (pp. 19, 20): he, however, suggests at 

 p. 23 that the quantity appropriated to carcass is a constant 

 quantity (31bs. in 100 Ibs. of flesh), and by no means de- 

 pendent on the amount of nitrogen in the food : and we 

 deduce from his figures, that, if a pig be fed wholly on 

 barley meal, he will appropriate a third of the nitrogen 

 which it contains to carcass, leaving only two-thirds in the 

 manure; whereas, if he is fed on beans and lentils, he 

 will appropriate to carcass hardly more than one -sixth, 

 leaving nearly five-sixths in the manure. This is a most 

 important variation, as we shall see by-and-by ; and, indeed, 

 Mr. Huxtable himself is of opinion, that, by neglecting 

 this difference, he lost 20Z. in one porcine transaction of 

 only 2 1H. Os. We must, however, let this hare sit for 

 the present, having first given our readers a specimen 

 of the fearless way in which our author draws his con- 

 clusions : 



"Therefore, if we know how much nitrogen there is in 

 the food given to a beast, and know how much he has in- 

 creased in live weight upon that food, then, as each 100 Ibs. 

 of live weight contains 3 Ibs. of the nitrogen, we can 

 estimate how much nitrogen, and, therefore, how much 

 ammonia is contained in the manure : in other words, we 

 can pronounce how many bushels of wheat that manure 

 will grow." Seventh edition, p. 20. 



There is no waste here. 



We must now pass to another, but ancillary, class of 

 Mr. Huxtable's statements. He gives us (p. 26) a detailed 

 account of an experiment in manufacturing pork, which 

 was of sufficient extent as well as duration to be entitled 

 to much weight. We do not perceive in it the elements 

 of uncertainty which have been suspected by others. We 



