730 MAIZE 



CHAP. all. How else can I get 15s. for a bag of mielies?" He 

 XIV ' might have added that he also got the " droppings " from the 

 ten fowls, a most excellent fertilizer for the garden. 



690. Manurial Value of Foodstuffs. — A factor of import- 

 ance in determining the relative values of foods is their effect 

 in enriching the excreta of the animals which consume them, 

 and thus adding to their manurial value. This aspect of the 

 question is fully recognized in most European countries and in 

 the United States. Ingle (2) gives the following example : — 



Average samples of linseed cake contain 475 per cent of 

 combined nitrogen, 2 per cent of phosphoric acid, and 1 '4 per 

 cent of potash. Although a certain proportion of these con- 

 stituents is retained in the animal, being used in forming new 

 tissue, the larger proportion eventually passes into the excreta 

 and is available for manurial purposes. The proportion of the 

 whole retained in the body, varies greatly with the age and 

 condition of the animal, being greatest in young animals and 

 least in adult working animals. In English farm tenancy, 

 compensation is paid by the incoming to the outgoing tenant 

 for every ton of food consumed, on the basis of the assumption 

 that half the nitrogen, three-quarters of the phosphoric acid, 

 and all the potash passes into the excrement ; and that (1) 

 all the constituents from the food consumed on the farm the 

 previous year, (2) half those consumed two years ago, (3) one- 

 quarter of those consumed three years ago, and (4) one-eighth 

 of those consumed four years ago, are still available in the 

 soil. 



Messrs. Voelcker and Hall (1) prepared a table showing 

 the valuation per ton as manure of the leading foodstuffs, which 

 was reprinted by Mr. Ingle (2) in the Transvaal Agricultural 

 Journal {ox 1906. They show that the oil-cakes, pulse, and 

 leguminose hays, as naturally to be expected, have the highest 

 manurial value. The cereals take the following sequence in 

 compensation value for each ton of food consumed during the 

 previous year ; probably the money values would not be the 

 same in South Africa, but their relative value would be ap- 

 proximately the same : — 



s. D. 



Malt Culms 35 n 



Wheat Bran ........ 28 11 



Oats ......... ig 5 



