18 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jaii. 



loss from the manure of cows is shown to be 22 cents per ton, 

 or $1.75 yearly. There are 50,000,000 cattle in the United 

 States. Roughly speaking, I suppose that one-third of the 

 cow manure is left exposed in this way. That represents a 

 loss of $30,000,000. Now, I claim that the teachings of this 

 one experiment station bulletin must be of inestimable value 

 to the farmers of the country. 



I pass to another one, which is still more striking, — 

 Bulletin No. 25 from the University of Wisconsin, in which 

 Professor Henry, who, in my opinion, is one of the best 

 investigators in this country, reports the results of a series 

 of experiments in feeding bone meal and hard-wood ashes 

 to hogs. It is a question that is not new, but I think the 

 result has never been brought out in its full force as Pro- 

 fessor Henry has brought it out in this bulletin. He fed 

 ashes and ground bone, and effected a saving of 28 per cent 

 of the total food required. That is to say, if it required a 

 certain amount of food to produce 100 pounds of pork with- 

 out ashes and bone, then with ashe^s and bone there was a 

 saving of 28 per cent of that food. Now, 1 find by the 

 census that there are 44,000,000 hogs in the United States. 

 Estimating the average weight at 150 pounds, we have 

 66,000,000 pounds. Now, it requires about five pounds of 

 corn meal daily for 100 pounds. That makes 3,300,000 

 pounds or 1,650 tons daily, which must be fed to the hogs 

 of the country. Valuing that at $33,000, a saving of 25 per 

 cent amounts to $8,250 daily, or $3,000,000 annually. I do 

 not pretend that these figures are exact ; they simply show 

 what is possible. They show that by so simple a thing as 

 furnishing a certain proportion of bone meal and ashes in the 

 feed of hogs, where corn is largely used, a great saving can 

 be made, and Professor Henry has brought this out in a 

 very forcible way. 



I pass to Bulletin No. 5, from the Storrs Experiment 

 Station, which is under the charge of Professor Atwater. 

 This bulletin treats of a subject that has been in dispute ever 

 since the beginning of scientific agricultural experiments, 

 and that is, the source of nitrogen as food for plants. Every 

 pound of nitrogen that is purchased in any form of fertilizer 

 costs about 17 cents. It is an element that exists in the 



