1882.] Agricultural Possibilities . 531 
of beef or mutton sold, plus the liquid and solid excrements of 
the animal. When the excrements are colledted together and 
decompose, a second and more important loss takes place, 
some of the nitrogen escaping as ammonia and a further 
portion as free nitrogen, amounting, as I have already men- 
tioned, to about 30 per cent. Unless, therefore, 100 lbs. of 
nitrogen in the form of oil-cake, &c., costs less than 70 lbs. 
in the state of nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, or 
‘other nitrogenous manure, the notion of over-feeding cattle 
to improve their excreta as manure must be a financial mis- 
take. Further, 1 ton of sulphate of ammonia contains as 
much nitrogen as 4 tons of good linseed cake. 
M. Ville shows that there are cases when a crop which 
has suffered from a severe winter requires to be stimulated 
in the early spring. This is easily effected by means of a 
top-dressing of chemical manures, whilst farm-yard manure 
cannot be readily brought to bear, and even if applied its 
adtion is not immediately manifested. 
It must not, however, be supposed that M. Ville seeks to 
proscribe farm-yard manure. Where it exists he recom- 
mends that it should be utilised, and if it is deficient in any 
essential principle, such as phosphate, potash, or nitrogen, 
it may be enriched by adding superphosphate, chloride of 
potassium, or sulphate of ammonia, as the case may require 
— a simpler, more expeditious, and a cheaper process than 
that of over-feeding live stock. Indeed the “ feeding stuff” 
notion involves something very similar to a belief in the 
creation of power or of matter. One and the same particle 
of matter cannot do a double duty. If it is deposited on 
the limbs of an animal as meat, it cannot at the same time 
enter into and improve the manure heap. M. Ville’s recom- 
mendations, then, are that all cattle should be fully fed ; that 
all land, arable or pasture, should be perfectly manured, but 
that no attempt ought to be made to increase the supply of 
farm-yard manure for this purpose. 
It is a noticeable feature in the work before us that the 
author, though a chemist, does not recommend chemical 
analysis as a means of ascertaining what the soil of a field 
requires to fit it for some particular crop. He argues that, 
though analysis informs us what is the proportion of any 
given constituent in the soil, it does not show whether such 
constituent is in an available condition. If we extract 
the soil with an acid we dissolve out compounds from which, 
as they exist in the soil, the plant can derive no benefit. If 
we merely lixiviate with water we leave untouched matter 
which the plant, by means of the prolonged action of 
