VALUE OF EXCREMENT. 421 



at $33. 64. These prices maybe beyond the real money 

 value ; but it shows the intelligent feeder what foods he 

 may buy with safety, expecting to get back the cost of them 

 in growth, and increased weight in fattening, besides get- 

 ting a large return in the manure. 



VALUE OF SOLID AND LIQUID EXCBEMENT. 



We must study most carefully the proportionate value of 

 the solid and liquid manure. Table 4 shows the propor- 

 tionate amount of nitrogen found in the solid and liquid 

 excrement, and the amount is seen to be three to four times 

 as much in the urine as in the solid excrement. The 

 amount voided in the urine will depend very much upon 

 the digestibility of the food, for only what is digestible and 

 soluble can pass in the urine. But when the farmer be- 

 comes aware that considerably more than half of the fertil- 

 izing matter of manure is to be found in the urine, he will 

 begin to consider his means of saving this most important 

 part of the excrement. Not only is more than half of all 

 the fertilizing matter of animal excrement found in the 

 urine, but this is much the more valuable, apcording to 

 quantity, as this is all soluble, and becomes immediate and 

 active plant food ; while much of that in the solid excrement 

 requires time for decomposition before becoming food for 

 plants. The solubility of the fertilizing matter in urine 

 renders it so much more difficult to preserve from loss. It 

 is liable to be exhaled or evaporated in the sun, washed 

 away by rains, absorbed by the earth under the manure 

 pile, and temporarily lost in a great variety of ways when 

 the manure is kept in the ordinary careless manner. 



The great effect of the proper application and saving of 

 all the liquid excrement is seen in the English custom of 

 feeding off crops with sheep. It appears quite evident that 

 this mode of application greatly increases the effect over 

 that of applying the manure made from the same amount 



