ontinued the Doctor, "that it
takes exactly 2,000 grains of wheat to make 1,000 grains of dry manure.
I merely give these figures to enable the Deacon to understand why 1,000
lbs. of hen-dung is worth more for manure than 1,000 lbs. of wheat."

"I must admit," said the Deacon, "that I always have been troubled to
understand why wheat-bran was worth more for manure than the wheat
itself, I see now--it is because there is less of it. It is for the same
reason that boiled cider is richer than the cider from which it is made.
The cider has lost water, and the bran has lost starch. What is left is
richer in nitrogen, and potash, and phosphoric acid. And so it is with
manure. The animals take out of the food the starch and fat, and leave
the manure richer in nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash."

"Exactly," said I, "Mr. Lawes found by actual experiment, that if you
feed 500 lbs. of barley-meal to a pig, containing 420 lbs. of _dry
substance_, you get only 70 lbs. of dry substance in the manure. Of the
420 lbs. of dry substance, 276.2 lbs. are used to support respiration,
etc.; 73.8 lbs. are found in the increase of the pig, and 70 lbs. in the
manure."

The food contains 52 lbs. of nitrogenous matter; the increase of pig
contains 7 lbs., and consequently, if there is no loss, the manure
should contain 45 lbs. of nitrogenous substance = to 7.14 lbs. of
nitrogen.

"In other words," said the Doctor, "the 70 lbs. of _dry_ liquid and
solid pig-manure contains 7.14 lbs. of nitrogen, or 100 lbs. would
contain 10.2 lbs. of nitrogen, which is more nitrogen than we now get in
the very best samples of Peruvian guano."

"And thus it will be seen," said I, "that though corn-fed pigs, leaving
out the bedding and water, produce a very small quantity of manure, it
is exceedingly rich."

The table from which these facts were obtained, will be found in the
Appendix--pages 342-3.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF MANURE.

COW-MANURE, AND HOW TO USE IT.

"It will do more good if fermented," said a German farmer in the
neighborhood, who is noted for raising good crops of cabbage, "but I
like hog-manure better than cow-dung. The right way is to mix the
hog-manure, cow-dung, and horse-manure together."

"No doubt about that," said I, "but when you have a good many cows, and
few other animals, how would you manage the manure?"

"I would gather leaves and swamp-muck, and use them for bedding the cows
and pigs. Leaves make s