EXCREMENTS AND URINE. 93 



ture than the latter. Their facility of decomposition 

 is increased by the way in which they are usually 

 treated ; for they are suffered to lie long beneath the 

 animals from which they proceed, and are continu- 

 ally moistened by their urine ; so that for the most 

 part decomposition commences in the pens in which 

 they accumulate. By this admixture with urinous 

 secretions, the action of these faeces, in and by them- 

 selves a very powerful means of manure, is of course 

 very essentially enhanced. 



The excrements of swine differ exceedingly in their 

 quality, because the foddering of these animals is 

 far more varied than that of horses, cows, or sheep. 

 In Germany this manure is deemed the most fee- 

 ble, and rightly so, when the animals are fed en- 

 tirely upon uninvigorating food, as, for instance, on 

 potatoes. In England, on the contrary, it is placed 

 between that of sheep and horses ; and here, again, 

 correctly, because in that country bones, pease, grains, 

 and other invigorating means of nourishment, are 

 made use of in feeding these animals. From equal 

 quantities of manure the following yields in barley 

 were obtained by an English agriculturist : — 

 Land, when unmanured, . . . 159 lbs. 

 " manured with the excrements of cows, 167 " 

 « * « " " horses, 226 " 



« « « •« swine, 233 " 



" " « « sheep, 244 " 



In i\\e kinds of urine above named, where all the 

 manuring elements exist already in a soluble state, 



