86 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



week A sample of the excrement sent to Professor 

 Way on June 29, was found to consist of — 



Moisture, - 84.90 



Organic matter, with salts of ammonia, 11.94 



Sand 86 



Phosphate of lime, 1.-33 



Common salt, 24 



Sulphate of soda and potash, .73 



100.00 

 Nitrogen .94, equal to 1.14 ammonia. 



The yield of excrement being at the rate of nearly 

 9 J tons from each animal per year, the value of am- 

 monia may be computed at 13s. per ton, and tlie 

 phosphate of lime at nearly 2s., making together l.'is. 

 per ton, being at the rate of 2s. lOd. per week in 

 these two ingredients only; reckoned free from mois- 

 ture, £5 per ton, to which the sulphate of pota«h and 

 other mineral ingredients will be an appreciable ad- 

 dition. 



It will be observed that the bulky food supplied. 

 when this sample of excrement was sent for analy.sis. 

 was rich meadow grass, at the season it is found to 

 contain the greatest per centage of nitrogen, and tliat 

 this would materially affect the proportion of nitro- 

 gen in the excrement. It would have aflbrded a more 

 satisfactory test of the correctness of my views as to 

 the disposition of the animals to use or assirnilate 

 more nitrogen in the early, and more fat in the later, 

 stage of feeding, if the same bulky food had been 

 continued throughout. My ordinary practice being 

 to feed off two sets of cattle during the year — one 

 beginning with grass and finishing \^ ith turnips (for 

 sale in December and January) ; the other with tur- 

 nips, or other winter food, and finishing ^\^th grass 

 (for sale in July and August) — does not afford me an 

 opportunity of trying this; still, when I find from the 

 analysis of the excrement in the two instances of ad- 

 vanced stage of feeding doubly rich in nitrogen with- 

 out any perceptible increavse in its weight, these 

 experiments tend to confim this impression. 



When it is considered that nitrogen or ammonia 

 costs in food (take, for example, beans, at the moder- 

 ate price price of £7 per ton, or 3Ls. 6d. per quarter) 

 more than Is. per ft., while its value as manure is 

 usually computed at only 6d. per ft., the desirableness 

 of limiting the supply to what is requisite for assimi- 

 lation in the maintenance and increase of the animal 

 will be evident. The feeder may calculate that if he 

 go beyond this, his 20s. for such extra supply will 

 diminish to less than 10s., even vaih beans at the 

 moderate price I have quoted, 31s. 6d. per quarter ; 

 at the present high rates, the 203. so used would di- 

 minish to one-third, or Gs. 8d. 



My cattle are on boarded floors. The whole of 

 the excrement, solid and liqnid, passes into a tank, 

 under the tails of the animals. When filled, the con- 

 tents are emptied into a mud cart, and during the 

 experiment each load is weighed on a machine. On 

 sending a sample for analysis, the excrement, solid 

 and liquid, shed during 24 hours, is carefully stiiTcd 

 about and blended for some time, to insure an average 

 sample.— y., hi the London Agricultural Gazette. 



ScotTBS m horses. — Put one pint of good gin and 

 one ounce of indigo into a bottle, and shake them 

 well together, and administer in one dose. 



A Most VALCAni.E Grass. — I have just read a 

 letter of Mr. Damel Zollickoffkr's, publi.>hed in 

 the Xovember nmnljer of your truly interesting and 

 valuable work. The American Funnel, upon the 

 subject of '• Meadow Oat Gra>s." I am veiy anxious 

 to tell him that I have a winter grass Avhich, if he 

 could see, would so satisfy him that he would never 

 think of Meadow Oat grass again. I have now a 

 field of 100 acres (as level as a floor) ir. my grass, 

 from 8 to 10 inches high, the seeds of which were 

 sown late in Ipeptember la,st, and which more than 

 100 head of cattle, with horses, mules, .sheep and 

 hogs, can not keep down from this time to June next, 

 what think you of that ? This grass will keep them 

 all fat throughout the winter and spring, thereby 

 saving corn and fodder for work time. It makes the 

 milch cows give the greatest abundance of the richest 

 milk, rich cream, and the sweetest and yellowest but- 

 ter. It enables a man to have fat beef, mutton, kid, 

 pork, turkey and chicken for his table, and will then 

 (the stock being removed) go to seed, and yield from 

 4 to 6 tons of nutritious hay per acre. 'J'his grass 

 no frost, however severe, ever hurts; no insect troubles 

 it ; no overflow of water retards it ; no ordinary 

 drouth affects it. This grass reproduces itself, through 

 its seeds, on the same ground (without re-sowing) for 

 ages, enriching a field, beside grazing the stock and 

 yielding its hay. It does not spread, but is easily 

 gotten rid of by plowing under; and above all, tnis 

 grass, with our great Southern pea to follow it (which 

 it does exactly), gives to planters the cheapest, the 

 earliest, the simplest, and the mo.st paying plan to 

 restore worn-out fields, and re-fertilize those not yet 

 exhausted, which the ingenuity of man can demise. 

 These two will restore the most worn and exhausted 

 field, and richly pay us <all the time they take to do 

 it. Can guano do this ? C-an any compost, or min- 

 eral ? This grass, on veri/ rick ground, will grow 4 

 feet high; and I am in the bounds of truth when I 

 say, it will produce over 100 bushels of seed from an 

 acre. The seeds of this grass are larger than the 

 seeds of any known species, being nearly as large as 

 grains of wheat. This griuss is equally as nutritious 

 as barley; and stock of every kind, together with 

 every species of domestic fowl, are as fond of it as 

 they are of that. For sheep, it has no equal. For 

 making hay, no grass can compare Mith it In fine, 

 I say without the least reservation, that the Cera- 

 tochloa breviarisiata (which is the botanical name 

 of my grass) is without a rival in our climate and 

 soil. The seeds of this grass I propose to sell the 

 coming year, and have so advertised, at $.5 per peck 

 (which is plenty for a pei-son to begin with), to such 

 as will choose to send me their names and office (post 

 paid) to Columbus, Georgia — B. V. Iverson, in the 

 American Farmer. 



To Make Crackers. — One quart of flour with 

 two ounces of butter rubbed in; one tea-spoonful 

 of saleratus in a wine glass of warm water; half a 

 tea-spoonful of salt, and milk enough to rub it out. 

 Beat it half an hour with a pestle, cut it into thin 

 round cakes, prick them, and set them m the oven 

 when other tbmgs are taken out. Let them bake 

 till crisp. 



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