126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.- 



pounds ; their secretions differ, consequently, regarding their 

 amount of nitrogen. Full-grown animals return in their se- 

 cretion the entire amount of nitrogen consumed in their food ; 

 young animals retain some of it for their growth ; cows pass 

 part of it in their milk ; and the sheep in the wool. 



The secretions of high-fed oxen contain often two and one- 

 half times as much nitrogen, and three and one-half times as 

 much phosphoric acid as those obtained from cows or young 

 cattle. 



It is a quite customary practice upon large estates to calcu- 

 late the amount of nitrogen contained in the secretions of 

 the entire farm-stock, from the nitrogen contained in the 

 food consumed by making an allowance of twenty-five per 

 cent, of nitrogen lost in other directions, as milk, texture, 

 etc. Cows or oxen, for instance, which require for their daily 

 support, at the rate of from 6.5 to 7 ounces of nitrogen in 

 their food for 1,000 pounds of live weight, consume at that 

 rate annually from 148 to 171 pounds of nitrogen ; deducting 

 as stated 25 per cent, for other purposes, we find that from 

 111 to 128 pounds of nitrogen will be contained in their 

 fresh secretions. This quantity of nitrogen would be equal 

 to that contained in from 750 to 800 pounds of the best Chiu- 

 cha Island guano, or in 3,200 pounds of bone-meal, or in 

 25,000 pounds of half-rotten barn-yard manure. 



The efiiciency of the animal secretions as a nitrogenous 

 fertilizer depends, to an unusually large degree, on the pres- 

 ervation of the entire amount of both the liquid and the solid 

 portions. 



The liquid manure contains all the soluble constituents of 

 the food, which represent, quite frequentlj^ the most valua- 

 ble portion of the fertilizing substances of the entire secre- 

 tions. 



The amount of nitrooren contained in the urine of our do- 

 mesticated animals differs widely, independent of the kind of 

 food consumed. The nitrogen contained in the food has been 

 found distributed in their secretions as follows : 



