VALUE OF MANURE. 79 



though the manure is richer for this excess of nitrogenous 

 food which passes in an undigested state, yet the economy 

 of the practice is quite similar to that of feeding judi- 

 ciously 100 pounds of oil cake, and at the same time 

 spreading 100 pounds more over the manure pile for its 

 enrichment. An economical consideration of meat and 

 manure production would seem to require that the feeding 

 ration should be, at least, approximately adjusted to the 

 needs and capacity of the animal, and that the manure 

 should be the excrementitious matters resulting from the 

 most economical feeding. 



Science should teach the proportion of the various ingre- 

 dients of food required for the most economical produc- 

 tion of milk, meat and wool, and it is the value of the 

 manure produced by such feeding that we are considering. 



The most valuable result in manure, under a rational 

 system of feeding, will be produced at the point of the 

 greatest proportional production from a given amount of 

 food. A scanty ration which will be almost wholly used 

 as the food of support, will seldom enter into a system of 

 profitable feeding. 



There have been different estimates of the value of the 

 manure resulting from the consumption of a given quan- 

 tity of food by farm animals. That most industrious ex- 

 perimenter, Sir J. B. Lawes, some years ago, laid down the 

 figures of value in the following table : 



Showing the estimated value of the manure obtained on 

 the consumption of one gross ton (2,240 Ibs.) of different 

 articles of food ; each supposed to be of good quality of 

 its kind. 



