Stockard gives the amount of urine voided by a horse in a year at 3,000 lbs.; a cow, 8,000 lbs.; sheep, 380 lbs.; pig, 1,200 lbs.
Dr. Vœlcker, at the Royal Agricultural College, at Cirencester, England, made some valuable investigations in regard to the composition of farm-yard manure, and the changes which take place during fermentation.
The manure was composed of horse, cow, and pig-dung, mixed with the straw used for bedding in the stalls, pig-pens, sheds, etc.
On the 3d of November, 1854, a sample of what Dr. Vœlcker calls “Fresh Long Dung,” was taken from the “manure-pit” for analysis. It had lain in the pit or heap about 14 days.
The following is the result of the analysis:
FRESH FARM-YARD MANURE.
| Water | 661.7 lbs. |
| Organic matter | 282.4 ” |
| Ash | 55.9 ” |
| 1,000.0 lbs. | |
| Nitrogen | 6.43 ” |
“Before you go any farther,” said the Deacon, “let me understand what these figures mean? Do you mean that a ton of manure contains only 12¾ lbs. of nitrogen, and 111 lbs. of ash, and that all the rest is carbonaceous matter and water, of little or no value?” —“That is it precisely, Deacon,” said I, “and furthermore, a large part of the ash has very little fertilizing value, as seen from the following:
| Soluble silica | 21.59 |
| Insoluble silicious matter (sand) | 10.04 |
| Phosphate of lime | 5.35 |
| Oxide of iron, alumina, with phosphate | 8.47 |
| Containing phosphoric acid | 3.18 |
| Lime | 21.31 |
| Magnesia | 2.76 |
| Potash | 12.04 |
| Soda | 1.30 |
| Chloride of sodium | 0.54 |
| Sulphuric acid | 1.49 |
| Carbonic acid and loss | 15.11 |
| 100.00 |
Nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, are the most valuable ingredients in manure. It will be seen that a ton of fresh barn-yard manure, of probably good average quality, contains: