66 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



are as essential to the sti'ucture of most plants, as is the carbon, 

 hj'di'ogcn and oxygen of the liiimus. 



We think we may assume that the man who provides, for his 

 lands the largest amount of decaying vegetable matters, will 

 thereby be possessed of a capacity to grow the largest crops 

 with the least outlay. It does not follow that he will necessarily 

 grow tliem, for that depends upon other considerations. One 

 individual may have a large brain and great capacity for tlie 

 exercise of niental power, but from a phlegmatic tempera- 

 ment be incapable of arousing himself to the effort; while tiie 

 man with a small brain, coupled with an active, energetic tem- 

 perament, may thereby completely eclipse the former, not only 

 apparently, but really. Quite as much depends upon the qual- 

 ity and condition of this vegetable matter, as upon its mere 

 bulk, especially for the production of rapid results, generally 

 the more profitable ones. As in the instance of Ihe man with a 

 large brain, we say he has great natural powers or capacity, so 

 of a soil containing a large proportion of organic matter, we say 

 of it that it is naturally capable of yielding large crops, under 

 proper treatment. 



There are various sources from which we derive vegetable 

 matter, to be used as manure, but the most important one to 

 the farmer is that which is yielded by farm animals. The food 

 of these animals consists mainly of grass, either green or in the 

 form of hay, with some grain, and water for drink. Out of these 

 sul)stances is manufactured by the animal, either growth, milk, 

 fat, or the ability to labor, or in other words, the power of 

 keeping its organization in condition, by supplying the waste 

 constantly going on in organized beings. Hay or grass, which 

 constitutes the principal bulk of the food, unlike grain and all 

 those concentrated substances consumed by man, is made up in 

 great part of what is called woody fibre ; a substance which is 

 digestible only in very trifling degree, and passes througli the 

 alimentary system of the animal. During fliis passage, it 

 becomes finely divided, softened, and the greater part of its 

 solulile constituents, such as albumen, gum, starch, sugar, &c., 

 dissolved out. It is these solul)lc i)ortions that enter the circu- 

 lation of the animal as nutriment, while the remaining woody 

 fibre is discharged, mixed with some excrementitious j)rt)(]uots. 

 The condition of this woody fibre is found on examination to bo 



