ECONOMY OF FARMING. 107 



4. WHAT PROPORTION DOES THE FODDER CONSUMED, TOGETHER WITH THE LITTER, 

 BEAR TO THE WEIGHT OF THE MANURE? 



1. All nourishment which the beasts take in a fluid or solid fonn suffers 

 in the process of digestion a loss of weight, which is owing to the fact that a 

 portion of the same is taken into the animal substance, and another portion 

 is dissipated during these processes ; then the weight of the animal excre- 

 ments and the litter used is diminished by the putrefaction which the ma- 

 nure undergoes before it is carried into the field. On the other hand, the 

 excrements obtain an increase by the animal liquids employed in their de- 

 composition. 



2. If one knew accurately the weight of the waste and increase, he would 

 then know also the weight of fresh manure which will be produced by a 

 given quantity of fodder and litter. 



3. But because one can know as little of the mass which is taken up into 

 the animal organization in solid substance, which may be dissolved in water, 

 as of those parts which are dissipated during their passage through the organs 

 of digestion, and by the later putrefaction on the dunghill ; therefore we must 

 be contented with the conclusions which are indeed drawn from experience, 

 but which, on account of their defectiveness, must only be considered an 

 approximation to the truth. 



[Thaer says, " Beasts are to be viewed only as machines which, in proportion to 

 their size, but especially to the mode of feeding, convert part of the fodder into their 

 own animal substance, and the far greater part into manure, i. e., not only the dung, 

 but also the urine, and the trodden Utter, and what passes off by evaporation. This 

 manure is not merely from the offals of the fodder, but from the excretions of the ani- 

 mal body. Whether the solid mass of the fodder consumed, even in a dry state, be- 

 comes more or less in the excrements, is not known. Probably less, as the increase 

 of the body, growth of wool, and production of milk requires a part of the same. Yet 

 this is only small, and it is not yet decided whether the water drank, and the sub- 

 stances filled with gases are so dispersed through the body as to form solid matter. 

 The weight of manure from dry fodder by the moisture added to the excrements is 

 certainly increased one half, viewing it in the state of moisture we use it." — Tr.] 



4. The weight of the moist manure yet existing in the state of warm fer- 

 mentation, is double the weight of the dry substance consumed, and of the 

 litter employed in a proportionate quantity. 



The dry nutritious substance, or that which is reckoned by its dry weight, suffers 

 in the bodies of beasts a considerable diminution by the loss of that which the absorb- 

 ing vessels appropriate to themselves from it, and which with the excrements secre- 

 tory of nutritious substances are so easily decomposed by the process of putrid fer- 

 mentation, that in a short time its substance as well as its weight is very considerably 

 diminished. If we therefore say that 100 lbs. of dry substance of consumed fodder 

 with a proportionate quantity of litter gives 200 lbs. of manure, this must be under- 

 stood of stall-manure, where the greatest amount of urine is mixed in part with solid 

 excrements, or if they should be dissipated on the dunghill, would be replaced again 

 by rain. 



The more raw — more recent — stall-manure is ; the more the beasts drink ; the more 

 they take of juicy food ; the greater is the proportion of the weight of stall manure, 

 compared with the weight of the fodder eaten ; wherefore there is more manure from 

 horned cattle than from horses, and the least from sheep. 



The following experiments may serve as confirmations of these statements. Ge- 

 ricke undertook, with 3 cows, seven experiments to ascertain how much of different 

 nutritious matter such beasts ate, and also the water drank, how much milk they 

 gave from it, and how great was the weight of their solid and liquid excrements. 

 Every experiment lasted 7 days, with the exception of Nos. 4 and 5, and was tried 

 with great accuracy. In the following table these experiments are collected without 

 being reduced to Vienna weight, because it is only the proportions which are of value 

 in any weight. 



