Two pairs of young heifers were fed on a weighed and analysed diet, and their dung was sampled and analysed both in the fresh and in the rotted states.

It was found that the fresh dung contained about ¾ths of the nitrogen, ⅔rds of the phosphoric acid, and ⅞ths of the potash consumed by the animals in food and litter.

The dung made by the cake-fed animals was found to be more readily fermentable, and consequently more liable to loss during storage, than that made by the animals fed on roots and hay only.

The loss was found to fall chiefly on the ammoniacal nitrogen in which the cake-made dung is comparatively very rich.

Taking as a base-line the amounts of nitrogen and phosphoric acid in the dung of the animals fed on roots and hay only, it was found that the fresh dung of the cake-fed animals contained 82 per cent, of the nitrogen, and 70 per cent, of the phosphoric acid, of the cake they had consumed.

So great however was the loss of ammoniacal nitrogen from the cake-made dung, that after 6 months' storage under cover in the solid undisturbed state in which it was left in the boxes by the animals, only 37 per cent, of the nitrogen of the cake still remained in the rotted dung.

Dung is not usually kept so long as this, nor through such a hot time of the year, so that the average loss will probably be less than that found in the experiment, and ½ the nitrogen of purchased foods may very well be the average amount recovered in the dung.

The experiment shews however that, without any very flagrant mismanagement, the proportion recovered may fall considerably below ½, especially if the dung suffers further loss while lying on the surface of the land in dry weather.