50 TALKS ON 3IAXUEES. 



I have said that if the manure from a ton of straw is worth $2.63, 

 the manure from a ton of corn is worth $6.65 ; but I will not reverse 

 the proposition, and say that if the manure from a ton of corn is 

 worth $6.65, the manure from a ton of straw is w r orth $2.68. The 

 manure from the grain is nearly all in an available condition, while 

 that from the straw is not. A pound of nitrogen in rich manure 

 is worth more than a pound of nitrogen in poor manure. This is 

 another reason why we should try to make rich manure. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

 HORSE MANURE AND FARM- YARD MANURE. 



The manure from horses is generally considered richer and better 

 than that from cows. This is not always the case, though it is 

 probably so as a rule. There are three principal reasons for this. 

 1st. The horse is usually fed more grain and hay than the cow. 

 In other words, the food of the horse is usually richer in the val- 

 uable elements of plant-food than the ordinary food of the cow. 

 2d. The milk of the cow abstracts considerable nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid, etc., from the food, and to this extent there is less of 

 these valuable substances in the excrements. 3d. The excrements 

 of the cow contain much more water than those of the horse. And 

 consequently a ton of cow-dung, other things being equal, would 

 not contain as much actual manure as a ton of horse-dung. 



Boussingault, who is eminently trustworthy, gives us the follow- 

 ing interesting facts : 



A horse consumed in 24 hours, 20 Ibs. of hay, 6 Ibs. of oats, and 

 43 Ibs. of water, and voided during the same period, 3 Ibs. 7 ozs. 

 of urine, and 38 Ibs. 2 ozs. of solid excrements. 



The solid excrements contained 231 Ibs. of water, and the urine 

 2 Ibs. 6 ozs. of water. 



According to this, a horse, eating 20 Ibs. of hay, and 6 Ibs. of oats, 

 per day, voids in a year nearly seven tons of solid excrements, and 

 1,255 Ibs. of urine. 



It would seem that there must have been some mistake in col- 

 lecting the urine, or what was probably the case, that some of it 

 must have been absorbed by the dung ; for 3 pints of urine per 

 day is certainly much less than is usually voided by a horse. 



