358 TRAJTSACTIONS OF THE 



Dr. Waterbury — I don't believe that woody fibre will sustain 

 any animal. Nothing but insects can get nutriment out of mere 

 wood. 



Solon Robinson — It is all owing to what food horses are 

 accustomed to, as to what they will prefer. At the south, where 

 horses are almost wholly unacquainted with the sight of oats, I 

 assure you that a horse will leave oats for corn quite as readily 

 as he will do the reverse of that here. In some large districts 

 the entire food of horses is corn fed in the ear, and corn leaves, 

 called blades. Another very important question was now called 

 up by T. W. Field, viz : 



THE TREATMENT OF MANURES. 



Mr. Field — To talk intelligibly about manure, it is quite 

 important to know what manure is. Manure, if intended to 

 convey the idea of fwd for plants, is often a terrible misnomer. 

 Fresh dung, or fresh urine, is never food for plants. There is no 

 element in the fresh excretia of animals in the undecomposed 

 vegetable waste of farms, such as straw, stalks, weeds, etc., or in 

 the muck and peat of swamps that can afford sustenance to 

 vegetation. Plants can never appropriate an element until it is 

 prepared for them. They have no digestive organs, and the 

 change in their food must be perfected in the soil, which is at the 

 same time the granary and the stomach of plants. The waste of 

 manures can take place only by two methods. 



First. By solution in water, which may run off upon the 

 surface or sink into the ground. 



Second. By their preparation for food of plants prematurely, 

 or in such positions that plants are not present to appropriate 

 them, which preparation always reduces manures to gases. Now 

 let any one thoroughly comprehend these positions, and he will 

 never be at a loss to discover whether his manure is exposed to 

 waste. 



Until manure has undergone such fermentation as to produce 

 sensible heat, there can be no loss of the essential elements of 

 vegetation by gaseous escape. If maiuire lies upon an impervious 

 bottom, there can be no waste by the soluble elements passing 

 downwards into the soil, and if its position is such that no water 



