. The water may, and doubtless does, wash out the
soluble matter from some portions of the manure, but if the water does
not filter through the heap, but is all absorbed by the manure, there is
no loss. It is when the water passes through the heap that it runs away
with our soluble nitrogenous and mineral matter, and with any ready
formed ammonia it may find in the manure."

How to keep cows tied up in the barn, and at the same time save all the
urine, is one of the most difficult problems I have to deal with in the
management of manure on my farm. The best plan I have yet tried is, to
throw horse-manure, or sheep-manure, back of the cows, where it will
receive and absorb the urine. The plan works well, but it is a question
of labor, and the answer will depend on the arrangement of the
buildings. If the horses are kept near the cows, it will be little
trouble to throw the horse-litter, every day, under or back of the cows.

In my own case, my cows are kept in a basement, with a tight barn-floor
overhead. When this barn-floor is occupied with sheep, we keep them
well-bedded with straw, and it is an easy matter to throw this soiled
bedding down to the cow-stable below, where it is used to absorb the
urine of the cows, and is then wheeled out to the manure-heap in the
yard.

At other times, we use dry earth as an absorbent.

CHAPTER XXII.

MANURE ON DAIRY-FARMS.

Farms devoted principally to dairying ought to be richer and more
productive than farms largely devoted to the production of grain.

Nearly all the produce of the farm is used to feed the cows, and little
is sold but milk, or cheese, or butter.

When butter alone is sold, there ought to be no loss of fertilizing
matter--as pure butter or oil contains no nitrogen, phosphoric acid, or
potash. It contains nothing but carbonaceous matter, which can be
removed from the farm without detriment.

And even in the case of milk, or cheese, the advantage is all on the
side of the dairyman, as compared with the grain-grower. A dollar's
worth of milk or cheese removes far less nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and
potash, than a dollar's worth of wheat or other grain. Five hundred lbs.
of cheese contains about 25 lbs. of nitrogen, and 20 lbs. of mineral
matter. A cow that would make this amount of cheese would eat not less
than six tons of hay, or its equivalent in grass or grain, in a year.
And this amount of food, supposing it to be half clover and half
ordinary