VALUE OF MANURE. 425 



far from an overstocked market ; secondly, because mutton 

 and wool-growing, as we have seen, make a much smaller 

 draft upon the soil than dairy husbandry, and may return 

 to the soil, under a proper system, 95 per cent, of the fertil- 

 izing matter of all the feeding stuffs used. 



These deteriorated lands may, therefore, be rapidly im- 

 proved by feeding to sheep the richer foods mentioned in 

 our tables, with a return in growth and fattening of sheep 

 equal to the cost of the food, and, at least, 80 per cent, of 

 its cost returned in effective fertilizers to the soil. Nitro- 

 gen, potash, and phosphoric acid can be furnished to the 

 soil in this way at fifty per cent, of the commercial cost of 

 these fertilizers. And another important point is seen in 

 the fact that the standard of quality in these foods can much 

 more easily be determined than that in commercial fertil- 

 izers. When one ton or ten tons of decorticated cotton-seed 

 meal, linseed meal, malt sprouts, wheat bran, corn-meal, or 

 other food, is fed to sheep upon the land, you may deter- 

 mine, quite accurately, the amount of each of these impor- 

 tant food elements added to the soil ; but when you apply 

 a ton of commercial fertilizer, purchased at the full value 

 of a proper standard, the ordinary farmer knows very little 

 of what he really adds to the soil. Under a proper system 

 of feeding, the sheep farmer can scarcely err in applying 

 fertilizers to his soil which are obtained by passing rich 

 foods through the digestive system of his sheep. This will 

 be a chemical analysis and determination which he may 

 rely upon for accuracy. 



, FEEDING GREEN CROPS ON THE LAND. 



This return made by sheep for their food, in manure, 

 based as it is upon reliable German experiments, is most 

 encouraging to those who would feed sheep for the recovery 

 of fertility. This result follows in feeding off large crops 

 grown upon the land, such as turnip, or other root crop, 



