512 TRANSACTIONS OF THB 



richer would benefit the nation at large immensely, if some plan 

 could be devised to accomplish it. 



The following table shows the quantity of liquids voided by a 

 man, a cow, and a horse, in a year : 



Ammonia. 



Man,. 1,500 lbs., containing 100 lbs. of solid matter. 18 lbs. 

 Horse, 1,400 do 90 do 17 " 



Cow,. 13,000 do 900 do 150 " 



I would recommend the practical farmer, to pause when about 

 to purchase foreign manure, study the above table, and try to ap- 

 preciate the immense importance of doing something towards 

 saving these invaluable substances, and at the same time to recol- 

 lect, that the soil which would yield twice the quantity of seed 

 sown without manure, will produce twelve times with cow's liquid, 

 and thirteen times with human ; there is not a single ingredient 

 in either of these liquids, that is not a direct food for plants. 

 They can be equally and systematically diffused through the soil, 

 in such a manner as to become immediately servicable to plants, 

 and it will be found by experiment, that a much smaller quantity 

 than you can possibly imagine, will be ample for all the purposes 

 of vegetation. 



A man eats two and a quarter pounds of dry food every day, if 

 he can get it, amounting in a year to 800 lbs., and drinks in the 

 shape of wine, tea, coflfee, and water, fifteen hundred pounds, and 

 breathes eight hundred pounds of air. You perceive, therefore, 

 that a man consumes more than three thousand pounds a year — 

 a ton and a half — think of it. And yet a man is chiefly made up 

 of water: for instance, if he weighs 154 lbs., 116 lbs. will be 

 water, and 38 lbs. dry matter ; of this 24 lbs. are fat and flesh, 

 and 14 lbs. bone. The chest will contain 200 cubic inches of air, 

 and exhales and inhales every time a man breathes 20 cubic 

 inches, about the bulk of an orange. The fluid exhaled from the 

 lungs and skin every day, of twenty-four hours, amounts to about 

 four pounds, which contains solid animal matter and secretions of 

 the skin; when they remain in the blood they cause various dis- 

 orders. It is a singular fact, that the body of a man is as warm 

 in mid winter as in the dog days, and that the inhabitants of 

 Africa possess the same temperature of body, that the inhabitants 



