V 



1844.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



GUANO (GENUINE PERUVIAN & BOLIVIAN) 

 ON SALE, BY THE ONLY LEGAL IMPORT 3, 

 ANTONY GIBBS and SONS, LONDON; 

 Wm. J. MYERS and CO., LIVERPOOL; 

 And by their Agents, 



COTESWORTH, POWELL, AND PRYOR, LONDON; 

 GIBBS, BRIGHT, & CO., LIVERPOOL and BRISTOL. 

 47,'Lime-street, Nov. 23. 1844. 



R. HAlZETT'S DRY SO L I BL E FERTI- 

 LIZER'S are, considering: their power, the cheapest Ma- 

 nures in use, for they are entirely composed of the Phosphates 

 and other Salts of Ammonia, and other acknowledged powerful 

 fertilizers. They are fairly before the Public as tried things 

 (see No. 33 of the Gardeners' Chronicle, &c). 5 cwt. of either 

 has been found equal to nearly 30 tons of ordinary horse- 

 manure. They are applicable to all sorts of field and garden 

 crops. No. 1 for heavy top growth, as Corn, Hops, &c. No. a 

 is for all roots, and a sure preventive of the Fly in Turnips. 

 Price of each, 10/- per ton, or 125. per cwt. 



DR. HAU. KIT'S CONCENTRATED LIQUID FERTILIZER 

 is extensively used by Gardeners for improving the size and 

 flavour of fruits and vegetables, and the colours, and perfecting 

 the seed of floweis. Sold in quarts at Is. fid., and in bottles, six 

 times the size, at 7s. 6d. Each quart requires J2 gallons of 

 water, to reduce it for use. 



Agents fnr the above. London— Mr. Fothergill, Thames. 

 street; Mr. G. Hallett, the Factory, Broadwall, RlackfrUr*; 

 Messrs. Warner & Warner, 23, Cornhill; Hurst & M'Mullen,6, 

 Leadenhall-street ; Winstar.ly, Poultry ; Pace & Co., St. Peter's 

 Alley. Norfolk— Bullard and Watts, Norwich. Suffolk— Mr. W. 

 Revans, Yoxford. Leicester— Mott and Co. Gloucestershire- 

 Mr. Betterton, Fairford. Devoi ire— Mn Seward, Plymouth. 

 Wilts— Mr. G. King, Devizes. Glasgow— Mr. D. T. Jackson, 

 Hartlepool. Sunderland, Stockton, and Newcastle— Pace & Co. 

 Dundee— Green and Co. Further respectable Agents wanted. 



____ ====== 7S5 



legumen, &c. in the vegetable, so animal fat is ob- xpenment, which lasted I i day^ during which the 

 tamed from the fatty matter occurring in most vege- cows were fed only on Potatoes, 

 table substances. They altogether deny the formation 



of fat out of the surplus sugar, starch, &c., which we 

 have already referred to as fuel for the lungs; and 

 their denial is founded on facts similar to the follow- 



mg 



Wpt BQKiaUtuval alette* 



SATURDA Y, NOVEMB ER 23, 1844. 



MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 

 Wkdnksuav, Nov. £7— Agricultural Society of England. 

 Thursday, X, »— Agricultural Imp. Soc of Ireland. 



Wkd.veiday, Dec. 4— Agricultural Society of England. 

 Thursday, Dec. 5— Agricultural Imp. Soc ol Ireland. 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 

 Nov.25-Cliepsrovr. | Nov. 26-Rayleiirh. 



Nov. 26-Framlingham. | Lie of Thanet. 



With the view of determining between the rival 

 theories, M*. Boussingault subjected two milch cows 

 to three different descriptions of diet in as many suc- 

 cessive fortnights, or in periods of about that duration. 

 They weighed at the commencement of the first ex- 

 periment, 1262 lbs. and 1280 lbs. respectively. They 

 were then put on a diet of Mangold Wurzel alone 

 for 17 days, during which they ate 2821 lbs. and 

 2477 lbs. of this root, and yielded 26 and -27 gallons 

 of milk respectively. The following is the composi- 

 tion of the milk :— 



From three analyses of the Potato, M. Boussingault 

 concluded that it contained '002 of fatty matter, 

 0037 of nitrogen, and -00109 of phosphoric acid. 



The quality of the milk during this period was as 

 follows : — 





1st Cow 



2d COH 



Cheese . . . . 



S.«7 



3.81 



Sugar of milk . . 



3.39 



3.7 1 



Butter . . . . 



4.56 



8.43 



Alkaline chlorides 



0.43 



0.54 



Phosphates . . . 



< 1 



0.26 



Water .... 



87.73 



88.23 



_ 



100. 



100. 



Cheese 



Sug ar of milk 



H utter . 



Alkaline chlorides 



Phosphates . 



Water 



1st Covr. 2d Co 



4.S7 



3.09 



'■97 



0.55 

 0.5 



87-75 



100. 



3.99 



3-99 

 4.63 



0.55 

 0.27 



66.57 



100. 



The two Cows gave— milk 



dry excrements 



>> 



»» 



Fat ma; in the products 

 Potatoes consumed . . . 



Ibi 



1. 

 187. 



2369 



Fatty Matter. ( hcese, &c 

 ■"- lbs. 



Fat matter unaccountc r 



Weight of Cows at con nccment 



termination 



1 

 1j ;ii 



1.12 



13.46 

 4.71 



8.73 



U.66 



ji 



M 



M 



2.160 lbs. 

 2 



»» 



lbs. 



Our readers are doubtless well acquainted with the 

 theory propounded of late years by Professor Lilbig, 

 to account for the phenomena of animal nutri- 

 tion. A number of facts occurring, not only in the 

 natural history of our own species, but also in the 

 every-day experience of the stock farmer, which till 

 then had been *very imperfectly understood, have 

 been satisfactorily explained by it. The process of 

 fattening, as dependent on the circumstances in 

 which the animal is placed, and on the sort of food 

 given to it, has thus been illustrated by a considera- 

 tion of the absolute composition of that food for a 



knowledge of which we are indebted to the processes 

 of chemical analysis — and by a consideration of the 

 influence of warmth and comfort on the sources 

 of waste within the animal frame. 



Setting aside their mineral ingredients, Professor 

 Liebig arranges the proximate elements of all sorts 

 of food in two classes— the one containing gluten, 

 albumen, casein, legumen, which are in fact different 

 names for the same substances, according to the 

 source whence it is derived, and which are, moreover, 

 all identical with animal fibrine, the basis of muscle 

 or flesh— and the other consisting of sugar, starch, 

 &c, substances containing much carbon but no ni' 

 trogen, the element which is characteristic of the first 

 mentioned series. After digestion, it is believed that 

 all gluten, albumen, &c, in the food simply pass 

 from the vegetable structure, where they existed, into 

 that of the animal, without any chemical change 

 taking place on them— that, in fact, so far as this 

 class of substances is concerned, nutrition is not a 

 chemical process at all. With reference to the second 

 class of substances, again, it is believed that they are 

 simply fuel for the preservation of animal heat, to be 

 burnt in the lungs ; and the circumstances— artificial 

 warmth, &c— which render but a small quantity of 

 fuel necessary for this purpose, being precisely those 

 which render the combustion in the lungs of only a 

 small quantity of fuel possible, that any surplus 

 material of this class, which under such circum- 

 stances may occasionally occur, undergoes in the body 

 a Chemical change and combination with certain 

 elements always to be found there, and assumes the 



vS- ? f fat * Exce P tin S tne results of some lately 

 published experiments in France, the hitherto re- 

 corded facts bearing on this subject, which have been 



The excrements of these cows during this period 

 weighed 574 lbs., containing 91 lbs. of dry matter, 

 and 3-3 lbs. of fatty matter. The cows, towards the 

 end of the experiment, daily lost weight, and became 

 much emaciated ; they weighed at the end of 1 7 days 

 1175 lbs. and 1188 lbs. respectively. Mangold 

 Wurzel, M. Boussingault had by previous analysis 

 found to contain -^Vo- T^rt of fat, and .0021 of ni- 

 trogen, .0004 G of phosphoric acid. The following, 

 then is a tabulated statement of this experiment :— 





Fatly 



mutter, 

 lbs. 



Two cows have given— milk 

 »t • f. dry excrement 



Fat matter in the products . 

 Mangold Wurzel consumed. 



Fat unaccounted for .... 



460 

 91 



47S8 



Cheese, albu- 

 men, 8rc. 



lbs. 



1 7.2 



undetermined. 



Weight of cows at commencement 



termination 



n 



>i 



2512 lba. 



2363 „ 



Loss of weight during the period . . . 179 lbs. 



Supposing, as we are bound to believe, that the 

 quantity of the starch, sugar, and other carbonaceous 

 elements in the roots, were present in quantity 

 abundantly sufficient to supply the respiratory organs 

 with fuel, then the fair inference from this experi- 

 ment is that the cows, not finding in their food a 

 sufficiency of fat to supply the butter of their 

 milk, &c and being possessed of m power lo convert 

 starch, sugar, Src, into fat, were forced to draw upon 

 that already deposited in their own tissues — hence 

 their loss ol" weight. The animals, M. Boussingault 

 informs us, were so emaciated that he was forced to 

 put them for three or four days r on their original 

 food, hay, before he could venture to proceed further 

 with the experiment. 



At length he placed them and kept them for four- 

 teen days upon a diet of aftermath hay ; and of this 

 experiment we shall at once tabulate the results, 

 without making any preliminary statement. The 

 aftermath was found, by analysis, to contain 3.5 per 

 cent, of fatty matter, .001*2 of nitrogen, and .0034 

 of phosphoric acid. The quality of the milk from 

 the two cows during this experiment was as fol- 

 lows *• — 



aeesc . . . 

 Sugar of milk . 



itter . . . 

 Alkaline chloride 

 Phosphates . . 



Water . . . 



1st Cow. 



2d Cow. 



examined, receive in this manner a very satisfactory 

 explanation - as, indeed, Dr. Playfair showed in his 

 awe lectures before the English Agricultural Society. 

 ■I he second part of Liebig's theory— that which 

 relates to the formation of fat — has been objected to, 

 we believe, from the first, by M. Dumas, and other 

 drench chemists ; and the results of the experiments 

 , we "avejust alluded to. which are published in the 

 *ast Number of the Annates de Chimie tide Physique, 

 are also so much opposed to it, and so important in 



niany respects, that we hasten to place them before 

 °ur readers. * 



It is asserted by the French chemists that nutri- 

 "on not only with reference to the formation of flesh, 

 g h V. n aspect to the fat also, consists simply in the 

 eW» g t0 t,Ieir P ositio »s in the animal frame of 

 that 1 ! alread y Perfectly formed in the vegetable— 

 *« as the fibrine of the animal exists as gluten or 



3.63 

 3.46 

 5.92 

 0.45 



' -7 

 86.27 



3.56 

 3.94 

 4.39 



0.52 

 0.20 



87-39 



Loss of weight during the period . . , 



Here, as in the first experiment, we have a loss of 

 weight, which can only be accounted for on the 

 principle there stated, that the cows were forced by 

 lack of fat in the food, to draw upon the stores in 

 their own tissues, at the expense of their weight. 

 These results are apparently opposed to that part of 

 Professor Liebig's theory, which endows animals 

 with the ability to form their fat out of any excess 

 of the carbonaceous el ems of their food. 



As Al. Boussingault sa- —"These experiments 

 evidently show that a 1 gold Wurzel or Potatoes 

 given alone are insufficient for the proper nourish- 

 ment of milch cows— even though they be given 

 abundantly, one might almost say ad libitum, since 

 very often the cows left portions in their mangers. 



" A diet may be insufficient for several reasons: — 

 I, If the food does not contain such a quantity of 

 nitrogenised matter as may serve to replace the 

 matters equally nitrogenised, which are constantly 

 wasting from the body ; t>, if it does not contain the 

 carbon necessary to replace that which is burnt in 

 the act of respiration, or carried off in the secretions; 

 3, if it be not sufficiently charged with the Baits, par- 

 ticularly the phosphates, necessary to restore to the 

 economy those saline matters which are continually 

 expelled; and 4, it appears from our experiments 

 that food will be insufficient, if it be not rich enough 

 in fatty matters, to supply those which are carried 

 off in the milk and other secretions." 



Referring to his experiments, he adds, " The facts 

 I have collated will doubtless receive many explana- 

 tions ; but that which appears to be the most natural, 

 consists in admitting that the food of herbivorous 

 animals ought always to contain a certain quantity 

 of substances analogous to fat, destined to assist in 

 the production of the fatty tissues, and bile which 

 contains fat in considerable quantities. If, notwith- 

 standing the insufficiency of their diet in this re- 

 spect, cows should continue to give the same 

 milk, ^:c., as they yielded under a complete ali- 

 mentary regime, it is because they elaborate these se- 

 cretions at the expense of their own fat. Possibly, 

 for a limited time, cows may continue, under such 

 circumstances, to give the same number of gallons of 

 milk; the quantity will not diminish suddenly, but 

 each day also, as I have proved, they will lose 4 or 

 .5 lbs. of their own weight ; and if we persist in ad- 

 ministering an incomplete diet, then, however abun- 

 dantly it may be supplied, they will ultin dy be- 

 come so emaciated as to endanger life." 



100. 



100. 



The following are the results of the fortnight's 



experiment on the hay diet: 



Two cows have given— milk 



dry excrements 



i> 



lbs. 



Fatty 



matter. 



lbs. 



Cheese, & 

 lbs. 



350 

 339 



Fat matter in the products 

 Hay consumed . . . . 



Fat in excess 



1038 



27 6 



11 



12.5 



.6 



36.3 



7 7 



Weight of cows at commencement 



M 



«» 



teimioatioa 



■ 



t30 lbs. 



li 



It 



1 1 1 lbs. 



supplied in 



ON THE FARMER'S DUNGHILL. 



I am not about to offer a solution of the most difficult 

 problem in agriculture, but only to sate a fact in proof 

 of the great importance of having a practical answer to 

 the practical question — How must I make a dunghill ? 

 I have attempted to estimate the quantity of carbonate 

 of ammonia which escapes into the air du.ing the fer- 

 mentative process of converting farm-yard manure into a 

 suitable compost for laud. The value of the manure lies 

 chiefly in the nitrogenous substances which are retained 

 in it, and it is deteriorated in proportion to their escape. 

 The quantity lost may be estimated by the following ex- 

 periment: — li a slip of glass, about 3 inches by 1, be 

 moistened with 2 or 3 drops of hydrochloiic acid (spirits 

 of salt or muriatic acid) spread uniformly over 2 inches 

 of its surface, and then be held in the vapour arming out 

 of a dunghill, its acid surface bring downward, it will be 

 found that in one minute a portion of carbonate of am- 

 monia, amounting to yt'tto °*' a 6 r *' m * ' ia8 Dreu nxet * D J" 

 the acid, and converted into a hydrochlorate of ammonia. 

 Upon evaporation over the flame of a candle, the fea- 

 thery crystals of the salt will be immediately recognised 

 under the microscope. 



Now, every 2 inches of the surface of the dunghill 

 offering an escape to an equal quantity of ammonia, it 

 follows that every square yard of surface loses every 

 minute at least 3-5ths of a grain of this carbonate, and 

 every day about 2 ounces. If the hot fermentative pro- 



Gain of weight during the period . . . 



Here, again, where the fatty matter 

 the food exceeds that required for the milk, Sec, it 

 is deposited in the tissues of the animal, and we 

 accordingly find that the cows have almost regained 

 their original weight. 



The following is a tabulated account of the third ' cess be continued for a month, each square yard will, at 



