1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



27 



dust is mostly composed of clay, and the lime and 

 ochre found, in some form, in the soil. Besides 

 my trees are healthy, and this fact is better than 

 theory. 



Perhaps this dust mixed with some other sub' 

 stances, would be found beneficial — for instance, 

 with guano, for pear trees. D. W. L. 



W. Mtdford, Dec, 1855. 



ON FEEDING ANIMALS. 



Effect of LoNO-CoNirNUED Dairy Husbandry dpom ihe 

 Quality and Peoduce of the Son,. 



And whence does the mother derive all this glu 

 ten and bone-earth, by which she can not only re- 

 pair the natural waste of her own full-grown body, 

 but from which she can spare enough also to yield 

 so large a supply of nourishing milk ? 



She must extract them from the vegetables on 

 which she lives, and these again from the soil. 



The quantity of solid matter thus yielded by the 

 cow in her milk is really very large, if we look at 

 the produce of an entire year. If the average 

 yield of milk be 3000 quarts, or 750 gallons, in a 

 year, (every 10 gallons of which contain bone- 

 earth enough to form about 7 ounces of dry bone,) 

 then by the milking of the cow alone we draw 

 from her the earthy ingredients of 33 lbs. of dry 

 bone in a year. These are equal to 40 lbs. of com- 

 mon bone-dust, or 3J lbs. in a month. And these 

 she draws necessarily from the soil. 



If this milk be consumed on the spot, then all 

 returns again to the soil on the annual manuring 

 of the land. Let it be carried for sale at a dis- 

 tance, or let it be converted into cheese and butter, 

 and in this form exported — there will then be yearly 

 drawn from the land from this cause alone a quan- 

 tity of the materials of bones which can only be re- 

 stored by the addition of 40 lbs. of bone-dust to 

 the land. If to this loss from the milk we add 

 only 10 lbs. for the bone carried off by the yearly 

 calf,* the land will lose by the practice of dairy 

 husbandry as much bone-earth as is contained in 

 50 lbs. of bone-dust — or in 45 years every imperial 

 acre of land will lose what is equivalent to a ton of 

 bones. 



After the lapse of centuries, therefore, we can 

 easily understand how old pasture lands, in cheese 

 and dairy countries, should become poor in the ma- 

 terials of bones — and how in such districts, as is now 

 foimd to be the case in Cheshire, the application of 

 bone-dust should entirely alter the character of the 

 grasses, and renovate the old pastures. 



Of the Growing of Wool, and its Effects upcn the 

 Son,. 



The rearing of wool affords another beautiful 

 practical illustration, both of the kind of food 

 which animals require for particular purposes, and 

 of the effect which a peculiar husbandry must slow- 

 ly produce upon the soil. 



Wool and hair are distinguished from the fleshy 

 parts of the animal by the large proportion of sul- 

 phur they contain. Perfectly clean and dry wool 

 contains about 5 per cent, of sulphur, or every 100 

 lbs. containt 5 lbs. 



The quantity as well as the quality of the wool 



* It has been estimated that the proportion of bone in the — 

 Horse . . . := .125 of the live weight. 

 Sheep, old, (Merino,) z= .125 of live, 20 of dead do. 

 :=. .33 nearly of fiesh and fat. 

 ■ Pig, unfatted, . . = .17 of lice .20 of d^ad do. 



yielded by a single sheep varies much with the 

 breed, the climate, the constitution, the food, and 

 consequently with the soil on which ihe food is 

 grown. The Hereford sheep, which are bcpt lean, 

 and give the finest wool, yield only l-i lbs.; but a 

 Merino often gives a fleece weighing 10 or 11 lbs., 

 and sometimes as much as 12 lbs. 



The number of sheep in Great Britain and Ire- 

 land amounts to 30 millions, and their yield of wool 

 to 1 1 1 millions of pounds, or about 5 millions of 

 pounds of sulphur, which is of course all extracted 

 from the soil. 



If we suppose this sulphur to exist in, and to be 

 extracted from, the soil in the form of gypsum, then 

 the plants which the sheep live upon must take out 

 from the soil, to produce the wood alone, 30 millions 

 of pounds, or 13,000 tons of gypsum. 



Now, though the proportion of this gypsum lost 

 by any one sheep farm in a year is comparatively 

 small, yet it is reasonable to believe that, by the 

 long growth of wool on hilly land, to which noth- 

 ing is ever added, either by art or from natural 

 sources, those grasses must gradually cease to grow 

 in which sulphur most largely abounds, and which 

 favor, therefore, the growth of wool. In other 

 words, the produce of wool is likely to diminish, by 

 lapse of time, where it has for centuries been year- 

 ly carried off the land ; and, again, this produce is 

 likely to be increased in amount when such land is 

 dressed with gypsum, or with other manure in 

 which sulphur naturally exists. Of course, this 

 general conclusion will not apply to localities which 

 derive from springs or other natural sources a sup- 

 ply of sulphur equal to that which is yearly re- 

 moved. 



Of the Practical and Theoretical Values op Dippbeent 

 Kinds of Food. 



From what has been stated in the preceding sec- 

 tions, it appears, as the result both of theory and of 

 practice, that different kinds of food are not equal- 

 ly nourishing. This fact is of great importance, not 

 only in the preparation of human food, but also in 

 the rearing and fattening of stock. It has, there- 

 fore, been made the subject of experiment by many 

 practical agriculturists, with the following general 

 results : 



1. If common hay be taken as the standard of 

 comparison, then, to yield the same amount of nour- 

 ishment as 14 lbs. of hay, experiments on feeding 

 made by different persons, and in differert countries, 

 say that a weight of the other kinds of food must 

 be given, which is represented by the number op- 

 posite to each in the following table : — 



Hay 10 



Clover hay 8 to 10 



Green clover 45 to 50 



Wheat straw 40 to 50 



Barley straw 20 to 40 



Oat straw 20 to 40 



Pea straw 10 to 15 



Potatoes 20 



Old potatoes 40? 



Carrots, (red) 25 to 30 



Carrots, (white) 45 



Mangold-wurtzel 35 



Turnips 50 



Cabbage 20 to 30 



Peas and beans 3 to 5 



Wheat 5to 6 



Barley 5 to 6 



Oats 4to 7 



Indian corn 5 



Oil-cake 2 to 4 



It is found in practice, as the above table shows, 

 that twenty stones of potatoes, or three of oil-cake, 

 Avill nourish an animal as much as ten stones of 

 hay will, and five stones of oats as much as either. 

 Something, however, -will depend upon the quali- 

 ty of the sample of each kind of food used — wliich 

 we know varies very much, and with numerous cir- 

 cumstances ; and something also upon the age and 

 constitution of the animal, and upon the way and 



