A WORD ABOUT MANURES. 299 



substances in the process of time. Coal ashes contain these 

 same ingredients in a much less degree, or if soil is entire- 

 ly deprived of its vegetable mould, it is identical almost 

 with coal ashes. Each hundred pounds contain eight pounds 

 that are at once valuable to the farmer, and another 

 portion has a prospective value. Coal ashes are worth 

 a good deal, simply as a mechanical loosener of the 

 soil. Mixed with it, in even small proportions, it renders 

 the soil friable and easily worked. 



Having now explained that there is a principle called 

 mould or geine, and that this principle is necessary to 

 fertility, and also, that this principle to be in an available 

 form, must be reacted on by salts, it remains to inquire the 

 best form in which these elements are united. Practically, 

 every farmer in the country will at once answer stable ma- 

 nure. And, as is generally the case, practice has long found 

 out what science seeks a reason for. A careful analysis of 

 cow manure, which is generally accepted as the unit of val- 

 ue, shows that cow dung consists, not to go into an ultimate 

 analysis, of 



Water, 83.60 



Salts, 0.95 



Geine, 15.45 



This seems to be a small proportion of valuable matter, 

 only one-sixth of the whole amount. But let us see what 

 a careful farmer can do by saving for a year. In an ex- 

 periment, conducted carefully and published a few years 

 'ago, an average cow was selected, and everything she ate 

 or drank was carefully weighed, as well as all the voidings 

 of dung. This experiment lasted seven days, and from a 

 calculation, this cow would have made in one year, 4,800 

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

 pounds lime, 25 pounds common salt, 15 pounds sulphate 

 potash. 



This, carefully saved, furnishes salts of lime equal to four 

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



