(117) 



-geine, 71 pounds bone dust, 37 pounds plaster, 37 pOunde 

 lime, 25 pounds common salt, 15 pounds sulphate potash. 

 "This, carefully saved, furnishes salts of lime equal to fou* 

 and a half bushels of corn daily, or 1,662J annually. Not 

 only is this amount saved, but in addition the nitt'ogen that 

 is in it, by chemical affinity, creates a large amount of am- 

 monia, that is fixed and amounts in a year to 677 pounds. 

 To the nitrogen is due much of the excellence of this stim'- 

 vlant, and without the animal matter, or nitrogen, it would 

 be nothing more than decayed wood and salts. It is a com- 

 mon idea that the activity of stable manure is due entirely 

 1;o the animal excrements. It is due rather to the happy 

 combination of ammonia, geine, aud salts, such as no chemist 

 <sim manufacture from the food of the cow. Were this pos- 

 sible, a pile of rotted hay and turnips would supply all 

 these united elements. But effort has demonstrated that it 

 cannot be done. Nor does the food of a cow affect, but 

 little, the elements of dung. A cow fed on rich nitrogenoirt 

 food, such as corn or oats, will give some more nitrogen in 

 the dung, and form more ammonia, but the salts and geine 

 will be but little changed. 



Horse dung is much richer in manures than cow dungj 

 but horse dung very quickly ferments, and, by fermenta- 

 tion, it will lose one-third its value in one month. It is, 

 therefore, very necessarj to remove, as often as possible, the 

 ■liorse dung from the stable, and place it in the compost 

 heap with the cattle dung, or with alternate layers of soil, 

 and sprinkled with lime or plaster. These salts will catch 

 tind fix the escaping ammonia, and prevent much loSs. 

 After horse dung has fermented, if alone, it is of far lees 

 value than cow dung, but before it ferments it is much more 

 valuable. When that process is completed fully, nine-tenths 

 of its value, according to our best writers, is lost. TheSfe 

 are statements based, not only on experience and observa^ 

 tion, but also on absolute chemical analyses. How much h 

 -Mands the farmer in hand then to observe a systematic sav- 



