ORIGIN OP PLANT FOOD.

Northern Advocate, 5 October 1889, Page 3

ORIGIN OP PLANT FOOD.

Proffessor Elsom has furnished the Prairie Farmer several interesting articles on the above subject, and in the last mentions having been handsomely entertained by an Eastern farmer who uses liberal quantities of bone meal and raises good crops, but has allowed stable cleanings and offal to accumulate at home until they are in the way. This suggested a chapter on home-made fertilizers, the excrement, both liquid and solid, of cattle, horses, hogs, fowls and the family. This generally constitutes a valuable means of fertilization if well used, and it is great waste when any man who cultivates the soil allows this home material to go unused. Fxcrement differs according to the age and uses of animals. Growing animals retain most of the phoshates in their food for growth and maintenance of their bones Dairy cows return the phosphates in their milk. So the solid excrement of such animals Jwill be deficient in phosphates and will be of less value for plant food than from other animals. Farmers should understand that such facts pertain to the economy of the farm. Food affects the value of both solid and liquid excrements, and there is where science brings botany, chemistry and physiology to the aid of agriculture. Animals fed on grain develop rapidly of flesh and muscle ; corn and oil cake contain largely of phosphate matter and furnish nitrogen, a form of ammonia. The man who understands feeding animals receives greater returns for food expended by knowing what are the properties of food, and when he uses manures from the birny.ird can tell better what is to be expected from them by knowing the character of food fel and the age and use of animals whose excrement is used. The animal and vegetable kingdoms are inseparable, for the same inorganic substances are equally essential to vegetables and animals.