293 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Oct. 
and should the season prove favorable, good grass crops 
usually result. If the weather is hot and dry, failures 
are most frequent, but the land is well prepared for 
autumn seeding, of which we thall speak in continu¬ 
ing our discussion of the subject. 
The object of summer seeding is to get a grass crop 
as soon as possible, but unless the summer is cool and 
moist as above remarked, disappointment results. We 
think there is more risk of loss at this season, than 
either spring or fall, though when successful, a larger 
first crop is given than from fall sowing. 
Manures. 
From early historic periods we learn that the ma¬ 
nure of animals was applied to the land for the pur¬ 
pose of increasing the amount of cultivated crops, and 
also for preserving the fertility of the soil. That the 
application of manure to the land would effect these 
two objects, was a well known fact thousands of years 
ago; and in view of these facts , the manuring of cul¬ 
tivated land has been practiced from that to the pre¬ 
sent time. But why these things were facts, were not 
fully understood till within a few years past. But the 
analyses of competent chemists have shown that a 
fertile soil contains some nine or ten elementary sub¬ 
stances essential to the healthy growth of plants, more 
especially to such as are adapted for food for the vari¬ 
ous tribes of animals. These inorganic elements of 
plants, as they are termed, exist in fertile soils in an 
available soluble form, so as to be easily taken up by 
the rootlets of plants, and these^ in combination with 
four other gaseous or organic forms of matter, become 
assimilated and organized into that endless variety of 
plants that we see around us. These various process¬ 
es and products are all the results of those natural 
laws that govern the vegetable kingdom. 
Analyses further show us that those various ele¬ 
ments that compose the plant are also required in the 
composition of the animal; but the animal has not 
been endowed with power to take directly from the soil 
and atmosphere those necessary ingredients that are 
requisite for its growth, sustenance and existence. It 
is only through the intervention of plants, directly or 
indirectly, that the animal obtains from the soil and 
the atmosphere the necessary food for its subsistence. 
Experience has thousands of times demonstrated 
the fact that if an originally fertile soil is cropped 
year after year, and the produce annually removed, 
and no returns made to the land in the form of manure, 
the soil will, sooner or later, become nearly sterile. The 
reason of this is so obvious, that all understand it. 
Experience has also thousands of times proved that 
the same impoverished field can be restored to its 
original fertility by a liberal and judicious use of farm¬ 
yard or other manures. The reason of this is also 
very plain. The manure contains a large per eentage, 
in an available form, those very substances extracted 
from the soil, (by the removed crops,) in addition to 
much derived from the atmosphere. 
When cattle are fed on hay, grain and roots, some 
portions of the food go to replace the daily waste go¬ 
ing on in the system, and perhaps to add a trifling 
amount to the bone, fat and muscle of the animal, 
while a larger portion of the carbonaceous matter of 
the food is required for the purpose of furnishing heat, 
respiration, &c., and passes off from the lungs in the 
form of carbonic acid and water; but, after all, most 
of the nitrogen and earthy elements of the food are 
voided in the liquid and solid excrements, and these 
excrements, as food for plants, are valuable in propor¬ 
tion to the richness of the food upon which the animal 
subsists. 
The manure derived from cattle fed on bog hay and 
rye straw is always of poor quality—that from cattle 
kept on good English hay and clover being much bet¬ 
ter—with a liberal allowance of Indian meal, or oil 
cake, with the hay, better still. But the manure de¬ 
rived from animals and birds that feed wholly on 
“flesh or fish,” is vastly richer in the essentials of a 
good manure, than that derived from vegetable food. 
Peruvian guano is an illustration of this; it is the large 
per eentage of nitrogen and the phosphates, that gives 
such intrinsic and practical value to a prime guano. 
The birds depositing the guano subsist wholly on fish 
“ From extensive series of analyses, it has been ascer¬ 
tained that in a given time, the faeces of a man will 
yield 4£ lbs. of nitrogen; the urine voided in the same 
period, will yield more than lOf lbs. Of phosphates, 
the faeces in the same time, will give lbs.; the urine 
contains \\ lbs. Of inorganic matters, (the ash or 
salts,) faeces, 2| lbs.; urine, 12 lbs.” 
Probably the dung and urine of cattle may not bear 
the same relative proportions as those of man. Ac¬ 
cording to Bonssingault, a cow voids in a year 6,570 
lbs. of urine, containing 773 lbs. of solid matter, and 
of nitrogen 29 lbs., capable of yielding 35 lbs of am¬ 
monia. Sprengel makes all the figures much larger. 
But taking the smallest estimate, and probably the 
urine voided by a herd of cows, if it could all be saved 
and applied to the land, would be found of more value 
than the solid portion of the manure, at least as far as 
the salts and nitrogen are useful. This seems to be 
unknown to farmers generally, or if known, is unheed¬ 
ed by a large majority of them. In many sections of 
the country, scarcely one farmer in ten uses any means 
to save the urine of the cattle during the time they 
are housed through the foddering season ; the cattle 
lay upon the bare floor of the hovel without litter or 
bedding, the urine drains through the cracks in the 
floor and is lost; the manure is thrown out at the doors 
or windows, exposed to the washings of rains and melt¬ 
ing snows, thereby losing much of its valuable and 
soluble portions. If carted out in the spring, it is of 
a mortar-like consistence, and cannot be evenly spread 
over the ground, as it should be to effect the greatest 
good. 
Others have barn-cellars in which the manure is de¬ 
posited. But many farmers use no bedding for their 
cattle ; the manure and urine are thrown into the cel¬ 
lar, but the fresh dung can imbibe no more liquid, and 
of course the urine dra ins off or soaks into the ground— 
this is a serious loss. Other farmers make use of muck, 
litter, or other absorbents, to take up the liquids. If 
straw, refuse hay, or sawdust is used, there is great 
danger of too much heat in the manure heap—this is 
attended with great loss of ammonia and other valua¬ 
ble gases. If the manure is frequently spread about, 
and a few hogs kept upon it, or young ca,ttle occasion- 
ally turned in, so as to tramp it solid, decomposition 
will go on slowly, with little escape of gases. But 
under this management, the coarse litter does not be¬ 
come sufficiently rotted to allow of its being evenly 
