14 



GENESEE F'ARMER. 



Jan. 



as the mean of many experiments, 16.9 lbs 



gain in live wciglu for every 220 lbs. of hay j 



■consumed. From this we deduct 2.4 lbs. for of- [from a late communication of Prof. Liebig to 



fal, leaving the nett gain of 14.5 lbs. of beef for | the first number of tlie "Agricultural Magazine," 



♦ivery 220 lbs of hav. This at 25 cents per 100 1 a work recently started in London, a copy of 



Hineral Elements of Plants. 



We make the following lengthened extracts 



'bs., or .'JP5 a ton, makes 14 i lbs. beef to cost 55 

 cents, or nearly 4 cents a i)Ound. 



It is important to know that, in all these French 

 find Rhenish experiments, oats, turnips, oil cake 

 and the like, are reduced to their supposed 

 equivalents in hay, as a kind of provender cur- 

 rency. According to the best judgment of the 

 f^ditor of this paper, these equivalents are far 

 from being true and reliable in practice. In 

 short, we do not credit the statement that it re- 

 quires 20 lbs. of good hay or its equivalent in 

 roots and meal to make one pound of live weight 

 in a healthy bullock. If it, does then no man 

 can make beef at less than $G per 100 lbs., and 

 live by it. 



In Europe, the practice is general to keep ani- 

 mals, while fattening, in dark stables and well 

 I'edded, that they may sleep much of their time. 

 Perfect regularity should be observed in the times 

 of feeding, as cattle will expect their allowance, 

 and fret if it be not before them. Nothing, which 

 is left after a beast is through eating, should be 

 allowed to remain in his feeding trough. No 

 pains should be spared to save under shelter, and 

 free from waste, all the liquid and solid manure 

 of domestic animals, and especially that of fat- 

 tening cattle and swine. One important object 

 in feeding animals for the butcher should ever be 

 to enrich one's land by the aid of the manure it 

 furnishes. In France, Belgium, and FloUand, 

 the land to fatten a beast on, is estimated by the 

 flr|uare yard. All its food is carried to the stable, 

 and the manure taken back again with the utmost 

 care. Botli the urine and dung are diluted with 

 water to about four or five times their natural 

 bulk, and applied by a watering cart to'the fields. 

 By this system, three times the quanty of food 

 can be grown on a given area of land that will 

 be where stock are allowed to run over it and 

 trample down the tender grass, and drop their 

 excretions in a concentrated form, and on a very 

 8,-nall surface. As these excretions contain the 

 precise things which form grass, a moment? re- 

 flection will convince any one of the importance 

 of applying them, not in Jicap.s\ nor in a form so 

 concentrated as to kill, like the the urine of a 

 • ■oniestic animal, growing j)lants. Hence the 

 great im})ortance ofdihuing urine and spreading 

 it with the dung evenly over the whole sui-face. 

 All that have tried soiling cattle, and especially 

 cows, giving milk, speak faborably of the results. 



We. firmly disbelieve in farmers that will not 



improve; in farms that grow poor every year ; 



in starved cattle ; in farmei-'s boys lui-ning into 



erks and merchants; in farmer's daughters un- 



Uing to work; and in all farmers who are 



hamed of their avocation. 



which was sent to the Editor of the Cultivator 

 by Mr. HoRSFORD. The readers of our paper 

 for the last two years, will see in this article a 

 confirmation of the importance of the principles 

 which we have so often urged on the attention of 

 farmers : to wit, that tliey must supply their crops 

 with the alkalies potash and soda ; and the phos- 

 phates of lime and magnesia, as well as gypsum, 

 and substances rich in ammonia, nitrogen or 

 azote. It may be well to remark that the words 

 azote and nitrogen mean the same thing, and that 

 ammonia and hartshorn are compounds of azote 

 and hydrogen. 



Mr. Liebig attaches undue importance to 

 the urine and dung of swine. He says: "If it 

 were possible to provide our fields with the dung 

 of swine in sufficient quantity, we would replace 

 by it, in a soil which contains silica (flint sand,) 

 and lime, all the remaining elements of plants — 

 we have in it not only alkaline phosphates, the 

 principal elements of seeds; but also alkaline 

 carbonates, which are required by the leaves, 

 stalks and roots. This purpose can not be at- 

 tained by human excrements or guano alone, but 

 perfectly so from stable manure from its contain- 

 ing alkaline carbonates." 



Liebig seems to have entirely overlooked the 

 material fact that the excretions of swine and all 

 other animals necessarily varies according to the 

 variation in in their food. Thus, swine feeding 

 in the same pasture with neat cattle and sheep, 

 and eating the same grass, must certainly void 

 the same minerals which the grass furnishes. — 

 It is absurd to suppose that 100 lbs. of clover 

 will furnish a different set of elementary bodies 

 in the dung and urine of the cow, the pig, the 

 sheep, and the horse. Again it is equally un- 

 philosophical to contend that the excretions of 

 swine fed on hasty pudding and milk, will vary 

 essentially from those of man living on similar 

 food. 



Nearly all the distinguished Chemists of Eu- 

 rope talk about stable and barnyard manure as 

 something of a uniform, homogenous character. 

 The same mistaken idea runs through all their 

 analyses of the dung and urine of different ani- 

 mals. As though a bushel of potatoes on passing 

 through the alimentary canal of a cow, a horse, 

 a sheep or a man, will fu.inish nothing but phos- 

 phate salts to one, carbonate salts to another, and 

 something different from both to the third ! 



The following; may be regarded as the essential con- 

 stituents of a powerful manure applicable to all sorts of 

 soils : — 



Earthy PhoupJmtfs. — The most important of these is 

 Phosjihcite of Lhne, which occurs in nature as a mineral 

 culled fipatiie. It is the principal element in the bones, 

 which, it may be observed, have been found most efilcacious 

 if calcined, con-seqiienlly deprived of their animal matter.. 



