ORGANIC MANURES. 65 



The average urine of the cow, as analyzed by Sprengel, 

 contains 92.6 per cent, of water ; that of the horse, 94 ; the 

 sheep, 96 ; the hog, 92.6 ; and the human, 93.3. The re- 

 mainder is composed of salts and rich food for vegetables ; 

 but the human is far richer in these than any other. The 

 quantity and value of urine, varies much in different speci- 

 mens from the same or similar subjects, and depends on the 

 food and liquid taken into the stomach, the loss by perspira- 

 tion and other circumstances. 



SOLID ANIMAL MANURES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



Of these, Horse dung is the most valuable and the easiest to 

 decompose. If in heaps, fermentation will sometimes com- 

 mence in 24 hours ; and even in mid- winter, if a large pile of fresh 

 manure be accumulated, it will proceed with great rapidity. 

 If this is not arrested, a few weeks, under favorable circum- 

 stances, are sufficient to reduce it to a small part of its origi- 

 nal weight and value. Boussingault, one of the most care- 

 ful observers of nature, as well as an accurate, experimental 

 chemist, states the nitrogen in fresh dried horse dung to 

 be 2.7 per cent, of its whole weight. The same manure 

 laid in a thick stratum and permitted to undergo thorough de- 

 composition, loses ^ of its entire weight, and the remain- 

 ing tenth when dried, gives only one per cent, of nitrogen. 

 Such are the losses which follow the neglect of inconsider- 

 ate farmers. Peculiar care should therefore be taken, to 

 arrest this action at the precise point desired. Salt scattered 

 through the heap, will materially lessen the activity of de- 

 composition. It is better, however, to add turf as it accu- 

 mulates, in addition to the salt, if it is to remain long before 

 being composted or carried on the land. 



The manure of Sheep is strong and very active, and next 

 to that of the horse, is the most subject to heat and decom- 

 pose. The manure of Cattle and Swine being of a colder 

 nature, may be thrown in with that of the horse and sheep 

 in alternate layers, or it may remain in heaps by itself if 

 more convenient. 



If fresh manure be intermixed with straw and other ab- 

 sorbents, (sea-weed, peat, turf, tan-bark and the like,) and 

 over this a thick covering of earth or peat be placed, this ex- 

 ternal coating will combine with any volatile matters, which 

 fermentation developes in the lower part of the mass, and 

 preserve most of it from waste. Frequent turning of the 



