I o Soiling. 



Good crops make good manure, good manure pro- 

 duces good crops. 



The value of grain and forage crops for plant 

 food consists in the amount of nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid, and potash that they contain, while the value 

 of forage crops and grains for animal food depends 

 chiefly upon the amount of albuminoids, carbo- 

 hydrates and fat they contain. 



Animals, in the consumption of foods, take from 

 them but a small proportion of their value for plant 

 food, while the plants consume little or none of the 

 elements that the animals require. Thus, if a ton of 

 feed, say cotton-seed meal, should be plowed under 

 as a fertilizer, as is often done in the Southern 

 States, it would be of no more value to the land than 

 if it had been first fed to the stock, providing none 

 of its value as a plant food had been allowed to waste 

 in the manure pile. Some plants or grains are very 

 rich or valuable as plant food, while others are richer 

 in animal food, and again others are valuable for both 

 purposes. 



The following tables will furnish the reader some 

 curious and interesting facts, and some information 

 which will assist him, it is hoped, in making a most 

 economical selection. 



The analysis from which the values of the differ- 

 ent foods are estimated was taken from the work of 

 Dr. Emil Wolff of the Royal Academy of Agricul- 

 ture, Wurtemburg, Germany. I believe these ex- 

 tended tables, as prepared by myself, were the 

 first of the kind to appear in print in this coun- 



