f manure in a year.

It has been calculated that cows void about 48 per cent of the dry
matter of their food in the solid and liquid excreta, which contain of
water, on an average, 87.5 per cent. That is, every pound of dry matter
will furnish 3.84 lb. of total excreta. By adding the necessary amount
of straw for litter (which may be taken at one-third the weight of the
dry matter of the fodder), Heiden calculates that an ox weighing 1000
lb. should produce 113 lb. of manure in a day, or 20 tons in a year. The
'Book of the Farm,' Division III. p. 98, gives the annual amount at from
10 to 14 tons. According to Wolff, one may assume that on an average the
fresh excrements (both liquid and solid) of the common farm animals
(with the exception of the pig) contain of every 100 lb. of dry matter
in the food consumed about 50 lb., or a half. Estimating the dry matter
in the litter used at equal to about 1/4 of the dry matter of the food,
this would mean that for every 100 lb. of dry matter consumed in food
there would be 75 lb. of dry manure (viz., 50 lb. dry excrements + 25
lb. dry litter), which would yield 300 lb. of farmyard manure in the wet
state--_i.e._, with 75 per cent water. The amount of food daily required
per every 1000 lb. of live-weight of the common farm animals may be
taken, roughly speaking, at 24 lb. dry food material and 6 lb. of straw
as litter. The daily production of manure for 1000 lb. of live-weight
would amount, therefore, to 18 lb. of dry, or 72 lb. wet manure. (See
Appendix, Note XVII., p. 291.) According to J. C. Morton and Evershed,
oxen feeding in boxes require 20 lb. of straw per head per day as
litter. An ox, therefore, will make 8 tons of fresh dung in six months,
using 32 cwt. of litter. This means that each ton of litter gives 5 tons
of fresh dung. It is calculated that nearly twice as much litter must be
used in open yards.

[163] It has been calculated that under ordinary circumstances
sheep-dung, when allowed to ferment by itself, should do so in about
four months, horse-dung in six months, and cow-dung in eight months.

[164] See Appendix, Note XII., p. 286.

[165] See Heiden's 'Duengerlehre,' vol. ii. p. 156.

[166] Warington, 'Chemistry of the Farm,' p. 33.

[167] Recent experiments by Muentz and Girard in France have shown that
the loss in sheep excreta from volatilisation of the carbonate of
ammonia amounted to over 50 per cent. By the use of straw litter this
was reduced to ab