ON MANURES. 15 



coldness, and become a very strong- manure. The necessity 

 of cleanliness in the stye is a consideration apart, which 

 belongs more properly to the future subject of the treatment 

 of hogs. 



A full stock of swine effect very great service when per- 

 mitted to run loose in farm-yards where much straw is used ; 

 they highly enrich it by their dung and urine, and mechani- 

 cally promote the decomposition of its woody fibre by the man- 

 ner in which they constantly work among it — breaking it to 

 pieces, and thus rendering it more manageable on arable land, 

 even when in the earliest stage of decomposition. They have, 

 indeed, been strongly recommended by Mr. Blaikie, who 

 advises, in his very judicious essay on farm-yard manure, 

 ' that those industrious and useful animals should be attracted 

 to the yard, because they rout the straw and dung about in 

 search of grains of corn, bits of Swedish turnips, and other 

 food, by which means the manure becomes more intimately 

 mixed, and is proportionally increased in value.' Groat incon- 

 venience has, however, arisen from allowing them to run about 

 the buildings, through the difficulty of preventing them from 

 getting out and damaging crops and fences; wherefore many 

 farmers have adopted the plan of having paled yards, with 

 open sheds, for the sole purpose of keeping their store pigs. 



Urine, although essentially composed of water, yet contains 

 much of the elements of vegetation in a state of solution pecu- 

 liar to itself, and is combined, through the secretion of the 

 vessels, with carbon and saline matter, from which it derives 

 its nutritive properties, as well as with a large portion of 

 ammonia, to which it owes the peculiar smell by which it is 

 distinguished. The various species of urine from different 

 animals differ in their constituents, and the urine of the same 

 animals alters when any material change is made in the nature 

 of the food.* The analysis of its composition has shown it to 



* By experiments made by Mr. Brande on 100 parts of the urine of cows, 

 and by Fourcroy and Vauquelin of tiorses, tlie following proportions were 

 found in each, viz. :— 



cows. HORSES, 



Phosphate of lime 3 Carbonate of lime 11 



Muriates of potassa and ammonia 15 do. of soda 9 



Sulphute of potassa Benzoate of do 24 



Carbonate of potassa and ammonia 4 Muriate of potassa 9 



IFrea 4 Urea 7 



Water 65 Water and mucilage .... 40 



There is, therefore, more alkaline salts in the urine of horses, which con- 

 sequently possesses greater fertilizing powers than that of oxen; and it has 



