146 ESSAY ON TOP DRESSINGS 



larly is this the case with pastures fed by milch cows. They 

 do not return the essential elements of the plant to the ground. 

 These elements are required in great quantities to form their 

 milk, while in other animals they are required only to form 

 their bone and muscle. The ordure of cows is, therefore, far 

 less valuable and fertilizing than that of other animals. The 

 consequence is, that lands fed wholly by cows are exhausted 

 much sooner than those fed by other animals. For it is evi- 

 dent that where more is taken from the soil than is returned to 

 it, an exhaustion must eventually follow.* 



We furnish animal and vegetable matters to the earth, to 

 supply it with substances which the growth of plants has tak- 

 en from it. It Avill be obvious, on a moment's reflection, that 

 the constituent parts of the plant are taken up from the earth 

 and the air, in much the same manner as our food and drink 

 become our bone and flesh. The analogy is still more distinct 

 when we reflect that all our applications for the improvement 

 of the sofl, are nothing more than the supply of food for plants. 



* The question v.hetlier milch cows exhaust the phosphates of the soil, is of 

 somewhat recent date, and may, perhaps, be regarded as still unsettled. For 

 my own part, reasoning from scientific principles, I cannot doubt it. There 

 have been many and accurate analyses of milk, all showing a large amount of 

 phosphate. This must be over and above Avhat, in common with other ani- 

 mals, goes to form the bones. I hope to be able, at some future time, to bring 

 some valuable statistics to bear on this subject. Whether this exhaustion of 

 phosphates is directly connected as cause and effect, with the bone disorder in 

 cows, is another interesting question. It has lately been very ably discussed in 

 the New England Farmer, Vol. I, Nos. 22 and 2r>, and Vol. II, Nos. 3, 6, 9, &c. 



I am not prepared to say that the so called bone disorder is the effect of 

 exhaustion of phosphates in the soil, but the question is of such practical im- 

 portance, that I cannot farbear a remark upon it. When, on old pastures, the 

 phosphate is gone, the quantity necessary for milk, which is one of the most 

 abundant secretions of the cow, must be absorbed from the bones, just as in 

 case of a broken or fractured limb an absorption takes place from that limb by 

 other parts of the body, leaving it smaller than before. This absorption of 

 phosphate from the bones, must produce a weakness and debility of the sys- 

 tem. AVhcrever this disorder has manifested itself, I Avould most confidently 

 recommend the application to the pasture, of a mixture of leached ashes and 

 bone dust in nearly equal proportions. This will both increase the quantity 

 and quality of grass, and in case the bone disorder arises from want of phos- 

 phates, increase the health and strength of the cow. 



