RESTORING FERTILITY TO THE SOIL. 339 



that, in this case, the color of the vegetation gave unmistakable 

 signs of the poverty of the soil ; but in the midst of the dingy 

 yellowish-green of the herbage, I came upon one square of 

 bright green grass. In answer to my enquiry I was told that, 

 a " lambing-f old had baen there last year," and my informant 

 added his opinion, " that the manure would be so strong that 

 it would kill anything !" It had certainly killed the weeds, but 

 in their place, some good grasses had taken possession of the 

 soil. 



The plan I proposed to adopt was, to spend no more money 

 on tillage operations, but to endeavor to improve the pasture by 

 giving to it the food necessary to grow good grasses, sowing at 

 the same time a small quantity of the best seeds. I further 

 suggested that a flock of sheep should be allowed to run over 

 the whole of the land by day, and be folded there every night 

 about one pound of cotton-seed cake per head being allowed 

 daily. By this means, as the fold would be moved every day, 

 the amount of manure deposited on the soil could be 

 estimated. 



If there were a hundred sheep, receiving one pound of de- 

 corticated cotton- seed cake per head, daily, and the hurdles 

 were arranged to enclose a space of twenty-five by twenty yards, 

 in the course of ^ten days an acre of land would have received 

 manure from one thousand pounds of cake ; which amount 

 would supply seventy-seven pounds of nitrogen, sixty-eight 

 pounds of phosphate of lime, and thirty-two pounds of potash. 

 This amount of cake would cost about sixteen dollars. 



As regards the value of the cake as a food, it is 

 somewhat difficult to form an estimate ; but it takes nine or 

 ten pounds of dry food say roots, cake, and hay to produce 

 an increase of one pound of live weight in sheep. The cake 

 has certainly a higher feeding value, than either hay or roots, 

 but I will here give it only the same value, and consider that 

 one hundred and ten pounds of increase of the animal was ob- 

 tained by the consumption of the one thousand pounds of cake. 

 The value of the increase of the live weight would be in Eng- 

 land fully eleven dollars, leaving five dollars as the cost of the 

 manure. Now the cake furnished seventy -seven pounds of 

 nitrogen alone, which, if purchased in an artificial manure, 

 would have cost nineteen dollars ; and the other substances 

 supplied by the cake, would have cost from four to five dollars 

 more. The manures required, therefore, would be obtained 

 much more cheaply by this than by any other process. 



