Analyses of Ashes of Plants. 



189 



Let us suppose, with Mr. Stephens ('Book of the Farm'), 

 that an ox eats If cwt. of turnips each day, and that a cow is 

 allowed one-third of this quantity, or about 65 lbs. a day ; and 

 that sheep on the average of age and breed would eat (at least) 

 28 lbs. of turnips daily. These numbers may not accord with 

 every man's experience, and they are merely stated for sake of 

 argument. Any correction can easily be made if they are not 

 considered as fair averages. 



Now If cwt. of turnip bulb will contain on an average rather 

 more than 2 ounces of salt. The same quantity of beet bulb 

 will contain about 7 J ounces of salt. 65 lbs. of turnip bulb, the 

 daily allowance of a cow, will contain something less than 1 

 ounce of salt. The same weight of mangold will afford to the 

 animal eating it more than 2 ounces of salt. 



These calculations are founded upon the presumption that 

 cattle would generally be furnished with the clean bulb without 

 the leaves, which are left on the field. It must be otherwise, 

 however, in the case of sheep. When a flock of sheep are first 

 turned upon the turnips they will commence with the tops. 



28 lbs. of turnip-tops contain on an average about 1^ ounce of 

 salt : they may contain (Spec. 85, table 7) twice this quantity, or 

 2\ ounces. 28 lbs. of the entire crop will usually afford about 

 half an ounce of salt, and the same quantity of the clean bulb of 

 course not so much. 



Supposing sheep to be turned upon beet, and that they con- 

 sumed an equal amount of this root as of turnips, then in 28 lbs. 

 of leaf they would always find 2J ounces of salt ; and a similar 

 amount of the bulb, or of the bulb and leaf together, would on 

 the average contain 1 J ounce of this substance. 



Of the action of salt upon the animal economy, and of the ad- 

 vantages which are supposed to be derived from a free supply of 

 this substance to sheep and cattle, we do not pretend to be com- 

 petent judges ; our province is to point out that the arguments 

 which will apply to salt given separately, must also be held good 

 in the case of turnips or mangold, which equally convey this con- 

 diment into the stomach of those animals which are fed upon 

 them. 



It is possible that a farmer would think half a pound of salt 

 rather a large dose to give day by day for weeks together to an 

 ox — yet such is the allowance which the animal would daily re- 

 ceive in his food, supposing the latter to be mangold- wurzel. 



There can be little doubt that a moderate exhibition of salt will 

 conduce to the healthy exercise of the digestive functions, but when 

 largely administered it is considered to impair the secretion of the 

 liver, a result which, however it may conduce to the formation 

 of fat in an animal, must be considered as implying an unhealthy 



