72 A PRACTICAL TREA'l'lSE 



largest portion of what is produced in most farm-yards is there 

 necessarily absorbed by the litter, and consequently profitably 

 applied, yet large quantities are constantly allowed to run 

 to waste. We have no moans of ascertaining the amount 

 of urine that may be voided by different animals in the course 

 of a day, for the diversity of their size and of the kind of food 

 on which they arc supported would deprive such a calculation, 

 upon a broad scale, of any pretension to accuracy. It has, 

 however, been supposed that, if fed upon common white turnips, 

 they yield about two-thirds of the weight — or about a gallon 

 for every 12 lbs.* — besides the water which they drink; and 

 we have seen that the cow which we have mentioned pro- 

 duced, when fed on two-thirds of brewers' grains, only 45 lbs. 

 of dung out of 126 lbs. of food, the greater portion of which 

 was accordingly voided in urine. It must aloo be recollected 

 that the cattle upon the farm to which we have alluded, in 

 Flanders, consisted of only forty-four head, of which eiglit were 

 horses, fed during the greater part of the winter upon dry 

 food, yet they not only converted the entire produce of the 

 straw and stable-dung into well-prepared compost of the usual 

 description, which could not iiave been effected without a large 

 supply of urine; but the savings from the stalls also furnished 

 an additi?5nal quantity of liquid manure of the richest kind, 

 equal to the culture of exhausting crops upon 21 acres of 

 ground. It has been calculated too, in Scotland, that the urine 

 of six cows or horses will enrich a quantity of earth sufficient 

 to top-dress an English acre of grass-land ;f but considering 

 the trouble and the prejudice attending it in this country, it is 

 probable that the best way of preparing it for use is that 

 recommended by a considerable farmer in Peebles-shire, who 

 applies it in the following manner. He has a pit, about 12 

 yards square and 4 feet deep, which he fills with rich earth, 

 or any such matters that may be at hand, and the urine of the 

 cattle which he feeds is conveyed to the pit by a sewer, and 

 spread equally over it. After this compost has received the" 

 greatest portion of the urine, which is about the latter end of 

 April, when it is ready for the spring sowing, it is carefully 



*The weight of pure distilled water is 8 lbs. per gallon : that of urine is 

 heavier, in proportion to its composition. 



t<Jeneral Report of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 526. We cannot, however, avoid 

 noticing the loose manner in which this calculation is supported ; for the 

 quantity of urine produced by six cows, or by the same number of liorses, 

 would be materially different. 



