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nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash contained in the 

 food the richer will be the manure. Many other circum- 

 stances, such as the age of the animal, its condition, whether 

 pregnant or not, etc., influence the composition of the 

 resulting manure, but these are matters which do not call 

 for detailed treatment here. 



The solid excreta of our farm animals are distinguished 

 from each other by the rates at which they ferment. For 

 example, while that of the horse and mule ferments very 

 rapidly and is known as " hot" that of oxen and buffaloes 

 decomposes very slowly and is known as "cool''. Sheep 

 manure also ferments very rapidly, in fact it may be 

 accepted that the lower the percentage of water in the 

 manure and the higher its content in nitrogen, the more 

 rapidly will it ferment. This principle is demonstrated in 

 the formation of hot-beds, where sheep and horse manure 

 are employed owing to the greater heat produced by their 

 more rapid fermentation. Owing to these differences it 

 will be gathered that a more regular fermentation is obtained 

 when the manure of various animals is mixed together 

 in one heap rather than when each is kept apart. The 

 liability to loss by too rapid fermentation is in this way 

 somewhat diminished. 



Manure composed entirely of bullock and buffalo excre- 

 ment will ferment gradually and act somewhat slowly in 

 the soil, while sheep manure will be quicker in its action. 

 As therefore, the value of the resulting manure is depen- 

 dent on such a variety of circumstances it will be seen that 

 it is extremely difficult to give analyses which accurately 

 represent the composition of that produced by tiny class 



