50 TALKS ON MANLKES. 



I have said that if the manure from a ton of straw is worth $2.G8, 

 the niamue from a ton of corn is worth $G.G5 ; hut I will not reverse 

 the i)rui)o8ilioii, and say that if the manure from a ton of corn is 

 wortli $0.05, the manure from a ton of straw is worth $2.G8. The 

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

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

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

 another reason why we should try to make rich manure. 



C H A P T E 11 XIII. 

 HORSE MANURE AND FARM-YARD MANURE. 



The manure from horses is generally considered richer and hetier 

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

 probahly so as a rule. There arc 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. 

 3d. 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 con'ain as much actual manure as a ton of horse-dung. 



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

 ing interesting facts : 



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

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

 of urine, and 38 lbs. 2 ozs. of stolid excrements. 



The solid excrements contained 23^ lbs. of wa er, and the urine 

 2 lbs. 6 ozs. of water. 



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

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

 1,255 lbs. 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. 



