EXCREMENTS AND URINE. 97 



is obtained from a definite quantity thereof. Among 

 the constituents of vegetable nutrients, the principal 

 obstruction to digestion is found in vegetable fibre 

 which has become old and ligneous ; this is met with 

 in various over-ripened kinds of grasses and straw. 

 As such kinds of provender are, as a general rule, 

 poor also in azotized ingredients, and as these latter, 

 moreover, are not so indigestible as the old vegeta- 

 ble fibre itself, so will the excrements they produce 

 abound indeed in undigested fibre, but be deficient 

 in nitrogen. Provender of this description- will ac- 

 cordingly furnish large heaps of manure, possessing 

 little power. 



4. Watery Nature of the Fodder, The greater the 

 quantity of water contained in the fodder, or the 

 more an animal drinks, the more aqueous and thin 

 will its excrements and urine of necessity become. 

 100 lbs. of urine from a horse, that took little fluid 

 into its system, contained 21 lbs. of solid constitu- 

 ents with 2J lbs. of nitrogen ; whereas in the same 

 weight of this secretion from another horse, only 

 11 lbs. of solid constituents and IJ lbs. of nitrogen 

 were obtained. In another case, where a cow had 

 been fed on hay and potatoes, ten per cent, of solid 

 ingredients was found in the urine, but when fed on 

 clover only six and a half per cent, was discovered. 

 A load of manure, when derived from green fodder, 

 cannot by any possibility contain more than half as 

 much of the efficacious elements of manure as the 

 same quantity when obtained from dry provender. 

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