1893.] 



PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 



71 



way to increase the home production of plant food in the 

 interest of an increase in the fertility of the farm lands. 



As the financial success of a mixed system of farming in 

 particular depends to a considerable degree on the character, 

 the amount and the cost of production of the manurial 

 refuse secured in connection with the special farm industry 

 carried on at the time, it seems to need no further argument 

 to prove that the relation which exists between the temporary 

 inarhel cost of the particular feed stuff under consideration 

 and the market value of the manurial elements which it 

 contains deserves a serious consideration when devising an 

 efficient and at the same time an economical diet. 



The character and commercial value of the manurial 

 refuse obtainable from any kind of feed stuff, under other- 

 wise corresponding conditions, stands in a direct relation to 

 more or less of the different essential fertilizing constituents 

 — phosphoric acid, potash, and in particular nitrogen — it 

 contains. The commercial value of these three important 

 articles of plant food found frequently in prominent com- 

 mercial feed stuffs equals in many instances more than one- 

 half of the market cost of the particular fodder ingredient 

 in question. 



The subsequent tal)ular statement may serve as an 

 illustration of these relations between market cost and 

 fertilizing value of some current reputed fodder articles : — 



