HIGH FARMING. 219 



believe the proportion between dead weight and live weight, 

 which he assumes, to be well established, and not to be 

 stated too high. The important result is, that 5J Ibs. of 

 dry food, being about four-fifths mixed meals, and one- 

 fifth bran and pollard, will make one pound of swine's 

 flesh. We believe that, on an average of English markets, 

 the value of this 5 J Ibs. of food would be 4c?., and that, on 

 a like average, the value of a bacon hog is kd. per Ib. It 

 is somewhat singular, that, in the case of an ox stated at 

 p. 20, if we reckon his food at the present market price, he 

 will have cost k\d. per Ib., which would be about his value 

 in an average English market. In both these transactions, 

 therefore, the feeder must seek in the manure, interest of 

 capital, risk or insurance, attendance, expenses of mar- 

 keting, and profit. If this be so, how important the ma- 

 nure is, and how important it is to use nitrogenous food, 

 and how important it would be to discover a breed of ani- 

 mals generous enough not to appropriate any nitrogen, 

 which, after all, is but 3 per cent, of their live weight! 

 That is the great desideratum in agriculture. " Thus, in 

 the preceding experiment, if the meal, instead of being 

 half barley, had consisted wholly of beans or lentils, of 

 which the nitrogen is about 4 per cent., the manure would 

 have contained 00 Ibs. more of ammonia: or, according 

 to the rate of ammonia in our estimate, have supplied the 

 essential materials for 100 more bushels of wheat." As- 

 suming, therefore, that the food and the pork balance one 

 another, a more favourable result than we could exhibit on 

 the average of 20 years of pig-feeding, a summary of the 



account framed on Mr. Huxtable's data will stand thus : 



from 1704 Ibs. nitrogen given in food, deduct 434 Ibs. sold 

 to the butcher: there remain 1270 Ibs. = 1524 Ibs. ammo- 

 nia = 305 bushels of wheat ; to which add 100 bushels 

 lost by the error of using barley vice beans, and the grand 

 total is 405 bushels of wheat created by feeding an ave- 

 rage of 80 pigs for about six months. Mr. Huxtable 

 arrives within 5 bushels of the same conclusion by a less 



L 2 



