82 HAPPY INDIA 



for cattle food, and the rest of the plant is probably 

 used to a great extent for various purposes. 



Coming to the wheat crop on pages 364 and 365, 

 Mr. Kenny quotes Dr. J. W. Leather, the Agricul- 

 tural Chemist of the Indian Government. Writing 

 in the Agricultural Ledger on Indian manures in 

 1897, he says : " The general conclusion which we 

 may draw from these experiments (the increase in 

 the harvests due to cattle manure) is that, with an 

 application of 6 tons per acre of cattle manure, 

 there will be obtained an increase of some 300 to 

 400 Ib. of wheat per acre in the North- West Provinces, 

 or Bengal, and at Nagpur from 200 to 300 Ib." 

 These results are unsatisfactory, as showing only a 

 small return for the manure, and point to the conclu- 

 sion that the soil required some other manure in 

 addition to make it productive. It is also to be 

 noted that in the quotation it is not stated whether 

 the 6 tons were fresh or dry. Very likely it is fresh 

 manure, because 6 tons of dry manure would require 

 for its production a pair of well-fed cattle in one 

 year, and there are not enough well-fed cattle in 

 India to give more than one-quarter of this weight 

 of dry manure for every cropped acre every year. 

 In dealing with human excreta, preserved in the 

 form of poudrette, Dr. Leather gives the result of 

 fifteen years' trial : 



No manure . . . . Average grain 1,083 Ib. per acre. 

 Poudrette . . . . Average grain 1,603 Ib. per acre. 



On pages 364 and 366 Mr. Kenny quotes Mr. T. 



