Where straw, leaves, swamp-muck, or other absorbent materials are not sufficiently abundant to prevent any loss of urine, means should be used to drain it into a tank so located that the liquid can either be pumped back on to the manure when needed, or drawn away to the land.
“I do not see,” said the Deacon, “why horse and sheep-urine should contain so much more nitrogen and potash than that from the cow and pig.”
“The figures given by Prof. Wolff,” said I, “are general averages. The composition of the urine varies greatly. The richer the food in digestible nitrogenous matter, the more nitrogen will there be in the dry matter of the urine. And, other things being equal, the less water the animal drinks, the richer will the urine be in nitrogen. The urine from a sheep fed solely on turnips would contain little or no more nitrogen than the urine of a cow fed on turnips. An ox or a dry cow fed on grass would probably void no more nor no poorer urine than a horse fed on grass. The urine that Mr. Lawes drew out in a cart on to his grass-land was made by sheep that had one lb. each of oil-cake per day, and one lb. of chaffed clover-hay, and all the turnips they would eat. They voided a large quantity of urine, but as the food was rich in nitrogen, the urine was doubtless nearly or quite as rich as that analyzed by Prof. Wolff, though that probably contained less water.”
If I was going to draw out liquid manure, I should be very careful to spout all the buildings, and keep the animals and manure as much under cover as possible, and also feed food rich in nitrogen. In such circumstances, it would doubtless pay to draw the urine full as well as to draw the solid manure.
NIGHTSOIL AND SEWAGE.
The composition of human excrements, as compared with the mean composition of the excrements from horses, cows, sheep, and swine, so far as the nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash are concerned, is as follows:
TABLE SHOWING THE AMOUNT OF NITROGEN, PHOSPHORIC ACID, AND POTASH, IN ONE TON OF FRESH HUMAN EXCREMENTS, AND IN ONE TON OF FRESH EXCREMENTS FROM HORSES, COWS, SHEEP, AND SWINE.
| One ton (2000 lbs). | SOLIDS | URINE | ||||
| Nitrogen. | Phosphoric acid. | Potash. | Nitrogen. | Phosphoric acid. | Potash. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human | 20.0 lbs. | 21.8 lbs. | 5.0 lbs. | 12.0 lbs. | 3.7 lbs. | 4.0 lbs. |
Mean of horse, cow, sheep, and swine | 9.4 lbs. | 6.2 lbs. | 4.3 lbs. | 22.5 lbs. | 0.4 lbs. | 25.4 lbs. |
One ton of fresh fæces contains more than twice as much nitrogen, and more than three times as much phosphoric acid, as a ton of fresh mixed animal-dung. The nitrogen, too, is probably in a more available condition than that in common barnyard-dung; and we should not be far wrong in estimating 1 ton of fæces equal to 2½ tons of ordinary dung, or about equal in value to carefully preserved manure from liberally-fed sheep, swine, and fattening cattle.