THE VALUE OF PIG MAXUKE. 137 



might be given ordinary food, and then when he had eaten 

 all he would of it, by mixing a little sugar with the food, 

 he might be induced to eat more. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE VALUE OF PIG MANURE. 



There is much misconception in regard to the relative 

 value of manure from different animals. It is often said 

 that the manure of pigs is richer than that from cattle, 

 horses, or sheep. This is sometimes the case, and some- 

 times not. It depends entirely on the food. An animal 

 does not " make manure " any more than a stove makes 

 ashes, or a thrashing machine makes grain, chaff, and 

 straw. We feed a thrashing machine with a certain num- 

 ber of bundles of wheat, and get from it a certain amount 

 of grain, straw, and chaff but the machine does not 

 make them. It was all in the bundles, and the machine 

 merely separates them. And so it is in the case of an 

 animal. A pig has no more to do in making rich or poor 

 manure than a thrashing machine has in making white 

 or red wheat. It depends entirely on the food. 



There is little or no difference in the composition or 

 value between the manure of a pig fed on clover, and that 

 of a sheep, or a cow, or a horse, fed on clover. But if a 

 pig is fed on clover, and the sheep is fed on straw, the 

 manure of the pig will be by far the most valuable, sim- 

 ply because the clover contains a greater proportion of 

 the more important elements of plant-food. 



A ton of corn, fed to a pig, will not give manure worth 

 as much as a ton of clover hay fed to a sheep, for the 



