412 [Assembly 



the necessary ingredients, not only to support animal life, but to in- 

 duce growlh, bone, muscle, &c., and that hay without other food 

 will perfect an animal. Such being the case, you must allow that a 

 cow for example, so fed, forms her whole animal economy, such as 

 muscle, sinew, hair, horn, &c., from the hay. She has four stom- 

 achs, and by the time the food eaten is masticated and digested, it 

 is devoid of nearly all the ingredients it contained before the process; 

 upon examination you will find it a mass of cold, inert matter, of 

 really no intrinsic value; one fifth of its weight is insoluble, and 

 nearly all the residue is water. If you compare it with the excre- 

 ment of the horse, you will allow at once that the latter is far more 

 valuable for agricultural purposes than the former. Why? For the 

 reason that the horse has formed his animal economy chiefly from 

 the hay eaten, and the farinaceous food, has been principally voided; 

 this farinaceous food contains all the requisites of growth, from potash 

 to chlorine; and as it putrefies, it throws off carbonic acid gas, 

 ammonia, &c., and if used in a hot bed, will force any seed from 

 them very rapidly. Such an effect cannot be produced by the use 

 of cow manure, you can raise no heat from it. If the urine of the 

 cow were saved, which rarely occurs in this country, more advan- 

 tage might be derived, as many saline matters find their way to the 

 urine, and not the excrement. Most of our agriculturists allow this 

 matter to escape to the nearest brook, or stream, or if not, they take 

 no steps to retain its valuable qualities, by means of charcoal, dust, 

 &c., but hasten its escape into the atmosphere. As this idea is so 

 contrary to the opinion you must have formed, keeping as you do a 

 herd of cattle expressly to eat up, and convert your corn stalks, hay 

 and straw, into this useless compound — it will be necessary that I 

 should point out to you a sure experiment, whereby you can readily 

 become satisfied, that what I now state is correct. Mark out two 

 pieces of ground, say two rods square, in a field similar in quality; 

 manure the one with pure cow manure unmixed by the usual chaff, 

 hay, straw, urine, &c , contained on a barn yard, which is in itself 

 a most valuable manure, and which as it is usually mixed with the 

 cow excrement, forms its enriching quality, and thus deceives the 

 farmer, who attributes the growth of his cruciferous, leguminous and 

 cereal crops to the cow manure, when it should be attributed to the 

 chaff adhering to it. 



Decompose similar hay, straw, corn stalks, &c., on which the ani- 

 mal has been fed, prevent the escape of ammonia from it, with char- 

 coal dust, and enrich the adjoining two rods with it. Even after, 

 you will rather decompose the refuse matters, and use them as ma- 



