HOW SCIENCE IS HELPING THE FARMER. 103 



mainly through rain leaching away the soluble plant food. Fig- 

 ures supplied from foreign investigation were used to prove the 

 point. Finally, in 1889 the Cornell University Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station did some practical work to demonstrate how 

 farmyard manure would deteriorate by leaching and fermenta- 

 tion.* It was shown that one ton of fresh horse manure had a 

 valuation of $2.45, but exposed outdoors for six months its valu- 

 ation was $1.42, a loss of $1.03 per ton, or forty-two per cent. 

 Mixed horse and cow manure, after leaching for six months, 

 showed a loss of 9'2 per cent, a less amount, no doubt, than occurs 

 on the average farm. 



At the present time, while there is a vast loss of plant food to 

 the farms through the improper care of the manure produced 

 thereon, there is at the same time saved to economic use an enor- 

 mous amount of fertility through the careful husbanding of the 

 materials as produced upon the farms of those who are intelli- 

 gent and economical. We must give scientific investigation the 

 credit for thus showing husbandmen how important farm losses 

 may be prevented ; the numerous devices at present used on the 

 farm for conserving manures, such as manure sheds, pits, cellars, 

 etc., are money-saving equipments. 



In a somewhat different direction, yet in a line where the work 

 of the chemist is of equal if not greater importance than in fer- 

 tilizer control, is the inspection of milk. Milk is the most essen- 

 tial article of food for human consumption, for, properly used, it 

 is as nearly a perfect food as is known. But milk is a fluid, and 

 as such is easily adulterated. It consists of from eighty-five to 

 eighty-eight per cent water, and twelve to fifteen per cent solid 

 substance — as fat, casein (cheesy matter), albumen, sugar, and ash. 

 On the percentage and purity of solids in milk is its quality 

 mainly dependent. After the selling of milk became a recognized 

 industry, adulteration came more or less to be practiced. The 

 pump was brought into requisition. Flour, chalk, and other in- 

 gredients were used to thicken it. In 1872 Dr. C. F. Chandler, of 

 Columbia College, stated \ that, from long-continued investiga- 

 tion, the milk supply of New York and Boston receives on an 

 average one quart of water to every three quarts of pure milk be- 

 fore reaching consumers. He further says, " With the addition of 

 water in the proportion of one to three before delivering to con- 

 sumers, we find milk-growers deprived of a business which would 

 return to them $1,390,000 yearly, at an average first price of fifteen 

 cents per gallon, city consumers, on the other hand, paying more 

 than $3,700,000 annually for water." 



* Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 13, December, 1889. 

 f Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 18*72, p. 835. 



