116 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of muck or peat are simply absurd, and are proved erroneous 

 by practical experiment. The great value of peat, after all, lies 

 in its absorbent qualities. From the experiments and experi- 

 ence of a considerable number of years, I feel more inclined to 

 urge the farmers of our county to save the liquid excrement of' 

 their animals by the use of seasoned peat in their cattle-stalls 

 and manure-pits, as an absorbent, than to recommend them to 

 drag it many miles, at much expense, to be used by itself or in 

 compost, for fertilizing purposes. 



How strangely we overlook the value of the liquid excrement 

 of our animals ! A cow, under ordinary feeding, furnishes in 

 a year 20,000 pounds of solid excrement, and about 8,000 

 pounds of the liquid. The comparative money value of the 

 two is but slightly in favor of the solid. This statement has 

 been verified as truth over and over again. The urine of herbiv- 

 orous animals holds nearly all the secretions of the body which 

 are capable of producing the rich nitrogenous compounds, so 

 essential as forcing or leaf-forming agents in the growth of 

 plants. The solid holds the phosphoric acid, lime and magnesia 

 which go to the seeds principally ; but the liquid, holding nitro- 

 gen, potash and soda, is needed to form the stalk and leaves. 

 The two forms of plant-nutriment should never be separated or 

 alloived to be ivasted by neg-lect. The farmer who saves all the 

 liquids voided by his animals doubles his manurial resources 

 every year. Good seasoned peat is of immense service to farm- 

 ers when used as an absorbent, and the stalls for animals should 

 be so constructed as to admit of a wide passage in the rear, 

 with generous storage room besides, for peat, to be used daily 

 with the excrement. 



The remarks above made may be regarded as preliminary to 

 some brief general statements upon another branch of the sub- 

 ject of fertilizers. With a proper idea of what really constitutes 

 plant aliment, and of the physical and chemical nature of the 

 bulky substances in general use, the inquiry very naturally 

 arises. Why cannot the concentrated principles of such be ob- 

 tained through other cliannels, and used more economically and 

 directly upon our lands ? An answer to this inquiry opens up 

 the whole subject of the value and use of special or concentrated 

 fertilizers ; and this is a subject which has been so often and 

 so fully discussed by theorists and others, that the reader will 



