DANIEL LEE'S ADDRESS. 385 



a horse, steer or pig, eats one hundred pounds of corn meal, and 

 all the excretions voided by the bowels and kidneys, formed by 

 the meal be collected, dried and weighed. What, think you, 

 will be their weight, provided the animal has neither lost nor 

 gained weight during the operation ? It will be less than one 

 half of that of the food consumed. From fifty-five to sixty per 

 cent, of the atoms in the meal will have passed out of the 

 system through the lungs as vapor, and in the condition of a 

 heavy gas called carbonic acid, and partly as insensible or sen- 

 sible perspiration. The practical question now arises, whether 

 that larger part of all the food consumed on the farm by domes- 

 tic animals, which passes out directly into the atmosphere, as 

 wood and straw do when burnt, is really worth as much, pound 

 for pound, as that smaller part discharged from the system in a 

 solid and liquid form ? If you say that the forty-five pounds 

 of dung and urine, (dry weight) are worth more to fertilize the 

 soil than the fifty-five pounds of carbon and elements of water 

 which escaped from the lungs, when both kinds of atoms came 

 from the same corn meal, it is certainly pertinent to inquire, 

 tohy is this so ? 



As one hundred pounds of hay, grass or corn-fodder, (dry 

 weight) yield something less than fifty of dry excretions, and 

 these fertilizers fail, in the economy of nature, to reproduce as 

 much forage as was consumed to form them, it is obvious that 

 the feeding of domestic animals and applying all their manure 

 to the land, does not make good the injury done to the soil. 

 It must, in that case, become poorer the more cattle, sheep 

 and swine one keeps on his farm. But all experience goes 

 to prove that, notwithstanding fifty per cent, of the dry mat- 

 ter in a ton of hay is literally burnt in the system to keep 

 the animal warm that eats it, the other half which appears as 

 manure, will reproduce a little more than a ton of hay. The 

 reason doubtless is, that the air contains at all times no incon- 

 siderable amount of atoms in an available form, precisely like 

 those thrown into it by the respiration of all animals, the com- 

 bustion of all fires, and the fermenting and rotting of all plants, 

 and other organized substances. To calculate the resources of 

 the soil and keep out of view those of the atmosphere, would 

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