On the Fatteninfj of Oxen. 
217 
animal in lospiratioii, or lost by the decomposition of tin- 
manure. 
To produce one ton of fresh box dunfj, there were consumed 
168 lbs. cake or corn, 431 lbs. clover-liay chafi', and 14G9 lbs. 
swedes; in all 20(58 lbs. of food, besides 518 lbs. litter, making a 
total of 258(-) lbs. food and litter. This contained 1075 lbs. of 
dry substance, and the ton of dunp;- 608 lbs. 
The litter contributes considerably the largest proportion of the 
dry or solitl substance of the manure heap. In fact, it is the 
amount of litter, wetted to a certain condition of moisture with 
the liquid and solid excrements of animals alone if the manure 
be made under cover, or with these excrements and water it 
made in open yards, that chiefly regulates the bulk and weight of 
the heap. Hence, practical men have generally taken the 
amount of litter at command as the basis of their estimates of the 
amount of manure produced on a farm. The following Table 
(XIV.) shows the amounts of dung (fresh and dry) obtained for 
loo parts fresh litter used, in each of the six experiments at 
Woburn. 
Table XIV. 
Kxpcrimcnts. 
Xumber 
of 
Days. 
Number 
of Ani- 
mals. 
Description of Food. 
100 lbs. fresh ; 
Litter produced. 
Fresh 
Dung. 
Dry 
Dung. 
I 
2 
3 
4 
5 
C 
60 
GO 
57 
57 
36 
35 
11 
12 
^> 
5 
5 
JCrushed oilcake; clover-hay chaff,") 
1 Cooked liuseed-conipound ; clover-hay ) 
JCooked oilcake-compouud ; clover-) 
\ hay chaff, and swedes j 
(Cooked liuseed-compouud; clover-hay | 
(Cooked linseed-compound; clover-hay 1 
(Cooked oilcake-compound ; clover-1 
lbs. 
419 
398 
*441 
*450 
528 
*421 
lbs. 
117 
101 
lis 
120 
143 
129 
Average 
53 
(44) 
434 
118 
In the article on manui'e in Morton's ' Cyclopaedia of Agricul- 
ture' it is stated that Mr. J. C. Morton found oxen feeding in 
boxes, to rcquii'e 20. lbs. of straw per head per day, as litter. 
Mr. Evershed, in his prize essay on ' The proper office of Straw 
on a Farm ' (R. A. S. Journal, vol. xxi. part 1), states that he 
finds an ox will make 8 tons of fresh dung in six months, using 
* In Experiments 3, 4, and 6, the weight of " absorbent " used is reckoned as so 
much litter. 
