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SMITIISONLVN DKl'MSIT.
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REPORTS
ON
PEAT, MUCK
AND
COMMERCIAL MANURES,
MADE TO THE
ate ^gvicultnal f wdctg
In 1857-8.
By SAMUEL W. JOHNSON,
CHEMIST TO THE SOCIETY, AND
Professor of Analytical and Agricultural Chemistry in Yale College.
HARTFORD:
PRESS OF WILLIAMS & WILEY,
Park Printing Office, 152 Asylum St.
1859.
v/
■< ^ ^^^.)
?7
ESSAYS ON I
1857.
&
/
CONTENTS,
I' OR ESSAYS IN 1857
PAGE
IXTRODUCTOUY. — Gexeral Coxsideuatioxs ox Manures, - - 7
1. What are manures ? .----.. 7
2. How mauuros act, ....... 7
I. As direct nutrhnent, ---... 7
II. As solvents or absorbents, - .... 7
III. They may improve the physical characters of the soil, - 8
3. Exhaustion and renovation of the soil, - .... 8
4. Comparative agricultural value of mamu'es, .... g
5. What manures are most generall^Miseful ? - - - - 10
6. Uses of special or partial manures, - - - . . 10
7. Comparative commercial value of manures, - - - - 11
8. Valuation of manures — substances to be reg'anled as commercially im-
portant, - - - - - - - - 11
9. Mechanical condition of manures, - - - - - 11
10. Chemical condition of mamu'es — aclual and piiifntial ammonia^sulu-
l)le and insolul)le phosphoric acid, - - - - 11
Tl. Prices of the important ingredients of commercial fei'lili/L'rs, - - 13
I. In.suluble phosphoric acid. - - - - - 13
n. Soluble phosphoric acid. - - - - - - 13
III. Actual ammonia, - - - - - - 13
IV. Potential ammoiua. ...... 14
V. Potasli, - - - - - - - 14
12. Potasli may be usually neglected in valuing- a manure, - - - 14
13. Computing the approximate money value of concentrated fertilizers, 15
14. Estunatmg the value of cheap manures, - - - - 1(5
EXAMIXATIOX OF Co.MlIERCIAL MaXURES. — GrAXO, - - IG
1. Peruvian Guano, - - - - - - - IG
2. Pacific Ocean Guano. - - - - - - - 18
3. Ichaboe Guano, - - - - - - - 19
5. Baker's Island or American Guano. - - - - - 20
11. CONTENTS.
t»ng«
Superphosphates, - ■ - - - • 21
Chemistry of the Phosphates of Lime, ' ... - - 21
Bone-Phosphate, - - - - - - » 23
Neutral- Phosphate, - - - - - - - - 23
Superphosphate, - - , - - - - - 24
Standard of composition of commercial superphosphates, - - - 26
Mape's Superphosphate, ...... 28
Deburg's " ....... 29
Coo's " 29
Coe & Co's. " 31
Lloyd's " 31
Rhodes' " 32
Other " 33
Columbian or Rock Guano, ....-- 33
PoudielA 38
Liebig Manufacturing Go's., ..... 44
Lodi Go's., -. - - _ - - - - - 44
Deburg's Bone Meal, ....--- 46
Ivory Dust and Turnings, --..--- 47
Beef Scraps, '47
Cotton-seed Cake — its agricultural value, - - - - - 47
Peat and Muck-^Preliminary Notice, ----- 52
Appendix — Methods of Analysis, - • - • - - 57
REPORT OF
PROFESSOR S. W. JOHNSON,
CHEMIST TO THE SOCIETY.
Henry A. Dyer^ Correspo7idiny Secretary of the Connecticut State Agri-
cultural Society.
Dear Sir : — Herewith I have the honor to present my First Annual
Report as Chemist to the Society. It comprehends the analytical re-
sults I have obtained on the following fertilizers, viz:
Four Peruvian Guanos.
Two Pacific Ocean Guanos.
One Ichaboe Guano.
One Baker's Island Guano.
Twenty Superphosphates.
Five Columbian Guanos.
Four Poudrettes.
One Cotton Seed Cake.
Five Miscellaneous. Making a total of forty-three samples.
Of these, tlie majority have been analysed twice, in order to avoid
any possibility of injuring imjustly the interests of manufacturers or deal-
ers. Twenty-nine of them have been examined during the present year.
The other fourteen analyses are from my investigations of 1856, and
have been included here for the reason that they serve to illustrate the
changes that have taken place in the value of several kinds of fertilizers,
or otherwise complete the report. In some instances where it faciUtates
the study or appreciation of the results, I have devoted some space to
elucidating the chemistry and general bearings of my subject ; and for
this purpose have quoted more or less from my articles on fertilizers,
which have appeared in Tlie Homestead during the last two years.
The investigation of peat which I begun at your instance, has been
prosecuted as far as possible, but is yet so incomplete, for reasons that
■will be more fully entered into in the Report itself, that I desire to re-
sume the subject, before making a final Report, if such be the pleasure
of the Society. I have therefore given only the most important general
results that have been arrived at in reference to this subject.
As the Connecticut State Agricultural Society has for its object to
develop not only the agricultural, but all the industrial resources of our
State, I have alluded to the successful employment of peat in the manu-
facture of various useful products employed in the arts, and to its uses
as a cheap and efficient fuel.
I have deemed it due to the Society as well as to myself to descril^e
the methods I have employed in my analyses. This is done in an ap-
pendix, and is of course not intended for the general reader, but will
enable men of science to judge of the reliability of the results I have
laid before the Society.
I have at the conclusion of my report alluded to some other important
subjects of investigation which might be undertaken with advantage.
Before entering into the account of my analyses of manures I must
state, what you can testify to, that since my appointment a year since as
chemist to the Society, it has been difficult to find in all our markets any
positive impositions upon the farmers in the way of fertilizers. Accord-
ingly the eclat of showing up glaring humbugs is not a distinguishing
feature of my labors during the last year. I trust however that the
comparative freedom of our State from fraudulent manures is a sufficient
recompense for the fimd which the Society has appropriated to my in-
vestigations.
Finally, I have prefaced my Report with some general considerations
relative to the nature, uses and abuses of manures, which I hope will be
of service in guiding to their judicious application.
SAMUEL AY. JOHNSON,
New Haven, Ct., January 12, 1858.
INTRODUCTORY.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON MANURES.
1. What are manures?
Manures are substances wliicli are incorporated with the soil
for the purpose of supplying some deficiency in the latter. How-
ever numerous and different may be the materials which assist
the growth of plants, judging them by their origin, external
characters and names, chemistry has in late years demonstrated
that they all consist of only about a dozen forms of matter, which
will be specified below.
2. How manures act.
Manures may act in three distinct ways.
I. Tliey may enter thej^lant as direct nutriment. Carbonic acid,
water, ammonia or nitric acid, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid,
silica, oxyd of iron, chlorine, lime, magnesia, potash and soda,
are the elements of vegetable nutrition — the essential plant- food.
In a fertile soil all these materials are accessible to the plant.
If one of them be absent, the soil is barren ; if a substance that
contains the missing body be aj)plied to the soil, it makes the
latter fertile.
II. Manures may act partly as solvents, or absorhents, and thus
indirectly supply food to the plant, e. g., lime, gypsum, salts of
ammonia, &c.
Soils are infertile not only from the absence or deficiency of
some one or more of the above-named forms of plant-food, but
also for other reasons. The food of the plant must be soluble
in water, so as thus to be transmitted into the plant as rapidly as
needed. Soils are often unproductive because the stores of plant-
food they contain are locked up in insoluble forms. Lime, gua-
no, the products of the decay of vegetable matters, often fertilize
a field merely by their solvent action on the soil. Gypsum acts
as an absorber or fixer of ammonia.
III. Manures wiprove the physical character of the soil, i. e.,
make it warmer, lighter, or heavier, more or less retentive of
moisture, &c. Such are some manures that are often applied in
large quantity, as hme, marl and muck,
A soil is often barren, not because it has no supplies of nutri-
ment for the plant, neither for the reason that those supplies are
insoluble ; but because the soil itself is so wet or dry, so tenacious
and impenetrable, or so light and shifting, that vegetation fails
to find the j)hysical conditions of its growth and perfection.
Almost all our ordinary fertilizers exercise to a greater or less
degree all these effects. Thus lime, on a clay soil, may, 1st,,
mechanically destroy the coherence and tenacity of the clay, and
give it the friability of a loam ; 2d., chemically decompose the
clay, making potash, soda, ammonia, &c., soluble, and, 3d, be
directly absorbed and appropriated by the plant.
3. Exhaustion of the soil by cropping, and renovation hy iveath-
ering.
Under cultivation there is removed from the soil by each crop,
a greater or less quantity of plant-food. The stores of nutri- '=
ment in the soil thus continually become smaller and smaller.
By the action of the atmosphere (weathering,) assisted by pul-
verization of the soil (tillage,) the insoluble matters of the soil
are gradually made soluble and available to vegetation.
There is thus constantly going on in the soil an exhausting,
and as constantly, a renovating process. In most soils under
ordinar}^ cultivation, the exhaustion, or removal of plant-food,
proceeds more rapidly than the supply by weathering. Such
soils therefore tend to become unproductive. In a few cases, the
solution of the materials of the soil itself goes on so rapidly that
there is always present in them an excess of all the matters re-
quisite to nourish vegetation. These soils are inexhaustible.
To assist in maintaining the first class of soils in a state of
productiveness, manures are employed.
" 4. Comparative agricultural value of different fertilizers.
It is obvious from the foregoing considerations that manures
are required to exercise very different functions in different ca-
se ■;, according to the character of the soil, as determined by its
origin and by its previous treatment. The soil itself is constant-
9
\y changing under culture, so that what is useful on mj neigh-
bor's soil that has been tilled and cropped for twenty years, may
be quite valueless on mine which is just reclaimed from the for-
est. What benefits my soil this year, may be of no perceptible
advantage next year.
In how far manure is needed for the special purpose of sup-
plying the soil with food for vegetation, it is often difficult to
decide. If a new and good soil is repeatedly cropped until it
ceases to yield remunerative returns, it may be that addition of
some one substance, lime, or potash, or sulphuric acid, will restore
its fertility. It more often happens that several bodies are defi-
cient; but ivhat is deficient can only be certainly learned by
actual trial. In any special case that substance is most valuable
as a manure, (in so far as the di7'ect nutrition of the plant is con-
cerned,) which is most deficient in the soil in accessible form.
As regards the indirect action of manures, in virtue of their
absorbent or solvent powers, and as regards their effects in me-
liorating the texture and other physical characters of the soil,
practical men have established certain rules, founded on extend-
ed experience, which it is not needful to recapitulate here.
Thus much is certain : that one fertilizing agent has no abso-
lute and invariable superiority over another, for all are equally
indispensable. The superiority that any one manure may be
reputed to possess, depends upon circumstances. Circumstances
are exceedingly various and continually changing. The reputa-
tion and local value of manures is equally various and changing.
In some regions, as in certain districts of Pennsylvania, lime
is considered the best manure. In numerous localities, plaster
(sulphuric acid and lime,) is chiefly depended upon. In some
districts, superphosphate of lime ; in others, Peruvian guano is
almost exclusively used.
Among the substances essential to vegetation, there are some
which almost never fail from the soil. Thus, oxyd of iron and
silica are present in every soil. Lime and sulphuric acid may
often be wanting. Potash and soda are not unfrequently defi-
cient. Available ammonia and phosphoric acid are likewise often
liable to exhaustion.
Ammonia and phosphoric acid, which possess the highest
10
commercial value among fertilizers, have been considered by
some wbose opinions are of weight in the agricultural world, to
possess also a decidedly greater agricultural value tban other
manures. It is asserted that in the growth of certain crops, and
in fact those crops which best remunerate the farmer, these sub-
stances are most rapidly exhausted from the soil. Now it is un-
doudtedly true that on the soils of certain districts, and in certain
courses of cropping, the application of ammoniacal and phos-
phatic manures produces the most striking results ; yet it is by
no means proved, or even probable, that on the whole, all soils
and all systems of cropping included, these bodies are oftener
lacking, or oftener and more permanently useful, than some of
the other fertilizing substances.
5. What manures are most often and most generally useful?
While we can not accord to any simple manure, or to any
single ingredient of a manure, a universal fertilizing superiority,
it is true that some manures are more useful than others, on ac-
count of their compound nature. The more ingredients a ma-
nure can supply to vegetation the more useful it is. Stable
manure is the universal and best fertilizer, because it contains
everything which can feed the plant. Swamp muck, straw, and
vegetable refuse generally, are of similar character. Fertilizers,
like lime, plaster, salt, &c., which contain but a few ingredients,
can not in general be depended ujdou for continuously maintain-
ing the fertility of the soil.
6. Uses of special or 2)artial manures.
Special manures, i. e., manures which contain some one or few
ingredients, are of use, very rarely as the farmer's chief reliance,
but often as adjuncts to stable manure. Saveral special ma-
nures may often be so combined as to make an effectual substi-
tute for stable manure. In high-farming, and in market garden-
ing, and generally where circumstances admit of raising the
most exhausting crops without fallow, laying down to grass, or
rotation of any sort, special manures are most advantageously
employed. In ordinary mixed farming they are useful in assist-
ing to reclaim or improve poor lands ; but in the best practice they
play as yet a very subordinate part, unless peculiar circumstan-
ces make them extraordinarily cheap.
11
7. Comparative commercial value of manures.
The commercial value of a manure is measured by its price, and
may be quite independent of its real agricultural value, tliougli
it usually depends considerably on its reputed agricultural value.
The scarcity of a substance, the cost of preparation and trans-
portation, the demand for it on account of other than agricultur-
al uses — all these considerations of course influence its price. It
is commercially worth what the dealer can get for it, so much
per bushel or ton.
8. Valuation of manures. — What substances are to he regarded as
commercially important in costly manures.
In any fertilizer which is sold as high or higher than half a
cent a pound, there are but three ingredients that deserve to be
taken account of in estimating its value. These are ammonia,
phosphoric acid, and potash. Every thing else that has a ferti-
lizing value may be more cheaply obtained under its proper
name. If the farmer needs sulphuric acid he purchases gypsum ;
if he needs soda, common salt supplies him. Every thing but
these three substances may be procured so cheaply, that the far-
mer is cheated if he pays ten dollars per ton for a manure, unless
it contains or yields one or all of these three substances in con-
siderable proportion.
9. Mechanical condition of manures.
Nothing is so important to the rapid and economical action of
a manure as its existing in a finely pulverized or divided state.
All costly fertilizers ought to exist chiefly as fine, nearly im-
palpa])le powders, and the coarser portions, if any, should be
capable of passing through a sieve of say eight or ten holes to
the linear inch. The same immediate benefits are derived from
two bushels of bones rendered impalpably fine by treatment
with oil-of-vitriol, ten bushels of bone-dust, and one hundred
bushels of whole bones. Fineness facilitates distribution, and
economizes capital.
10. Chemical condition of manures — State of solubility, d-c. — Am-
monia, 'potential and actual — Phosphoric acid, soluble and insoluble.
The solubility of a manure is a serious cpicstion to be consid-
ered in its valuation. "We are accustomed to speak of ammonia
as existing in two states, viz : actual and poterdial. By actual
12
ammonia, we mean ready-formed ammonia ; by potential ammo-
nia, that wliicli will result by decomposition or decay — "that
which exists in possibility, not in act." Now the former is al-
most invariably soluble with ease in water, and is thus readily
and immediately available to plants ; while the latter must first
become "actual'' by decay, before it can assist in supporting
vegetation.
In Peruvian guano, we have about half of the ammonia ready
formed, and easily soluble in water , the remainder exists in the
form of uric acid, which yields ammonia by decay in the soil,
but may require weeks or months to complete the change. In
leather shavings or woolen rags the ammonia is all potential, and
as these bodies decay slowly, they are of less value than guano
as sources of ammonia. Oil-cake, (linseed and cotton-seed,) con-
tains much potential ammonia, and in a form that very speedily
yields actual ammonia.
We do not know with what precise results the process of the
decay of ammonia-yielding bodies is accomplished in the soil.
Out of the soil such bodies do not give quite all their nitrogen
in the form of ammonia : a portion escajDCs in the uncombined
state, and thus becomes unavailable.
Phosphoric acid may occur in two different states of solubili-
ty ; one readily soluble, the other slowly and slightly soluble in
water. The former we specify as soluble, the latter as insoluble
phosphoric acid. In Peruvian guano we find 8.5 per cent, of
soluble phosphoric acid, existing there as phosphates of ammo-
nia and potash. The remaining 10 to 12 per cent, is insoluble,
being combined with lime and magnesia. In most other ma-
nures, genuine superphosphates excepted, the phosphoric acid is
insoluble.
Among those phosphates which are here ranked as insoluble,
there exist great differences in their availability, resulting from
their mechanical condition. The ashes of bones, and the porous
rock-guano when finely ground, exert immediate effect on crops,
while the dense, glass}^, or crystallized phosphorite of Ilurds-
town, N. J., and the fossil bones (so-called coprolites of England,)
are almost or quite inert unless subjected to treatment with oil-
of- vitriol, (see page 31.)
13
11. The reasonable price of phosj^horic acid, ammonia, and pot-
ash.
I. Insoluble phosphoric acid. There are several substances now
in market which, as fertilizers, are valuable exclusively on ac-
count of their content of phosphoric acid ; which, moreover, are
at present the cheapest sources of this substance that possess the
degree of fineness proper to an active fertilizer. These substan-
ces are the phosphatic guanos, (Columbian and American gua-
no,) and the refuse bone-black of the sugar refineries. From
them we can easily calculate the present lowest commercial value
of phosphoric acid. If we divide the price per ton of Colum-
bian guano, $35, by the number of pounds of phosphoric acid
in a ton, which, at 40 per cent., amounts to 800 pounds, then we
have the price of one pound as nearly 4:|- cents.
Eefuse bone-black may be had for $30 per ton ; it usually
contains 32 per cent, of phosphoric acid. The same division as
above gives us 4f cents as the cost of phosphoric acid per pound.
In this report I shall adopt the average of these figures, viz :
4^ cents, as the reasonable price of insoluble phosphoric acid.
Phosphoric acid is much cheaper in crushed bones ; but this
material is not in a suitable state of division to serve as the basis
of a fair estimate.
II. Soluhle pjhosphoric acid. This is nearly always the result
of a manufacturing process. Professor Way, chemist to the
Eoyal Agricultural Society of England, estimates its worth at
10|- cents per pound. Dr. Voelcker, of the Royal Agricultural
College of England, and Dr. Stoeckhardt, the distinguished Sax-
on Agricultural Chemist, reckon it at 12^ cents per pound.
They have deduced these prices from that of the best commer-
cial superphosphates. In this report the price will also be as-
sumed at 12|- cents. This, I believe, is considerably more than
it is really worth, but is probably the lowest rate at which it
can now be purchased.
III. Actual ammonia. The cheapest commercial source of
this body is Peruvian guano. Although it contains several per
cents of potential ammonia, jQi the latter is so readily converted
into actual ammonia, that the whole efl:ect of the manure is pro-
duced in one season, and therefore we may justly consider the
whole as of equal value with actual ammonia.
14
Good Peruvian guano contains :
2 per cent., or 40 pounds per ton of potasli.
3 " " " 60 " " " soluble phosphoric acid.
12 " " " 240 " " " insoluble " "
and yields
16 " " " 320 " " " ammonia.
If we add together the values of the potash, (see next page,)
and of the phosphoric acid, soluble and insoluble, and subtract
the same from the price of guano we shall arrive at the worth
of the ammonia — as follows :
40x4r=:$1.60; 60x 12^=$7.50; and240 x4^=$10.80; total
$19.90.
^65.00— $19.90=$45.10 the value of 320 pounds of ammonia.
$45.10-^320=14 cents nearly, the value of one pound.
This price, 14 cents per pound, will be employed in this report.
IV. Potential ammonia. The value of this varies so greatly,
being, for example, as uric acid in guano, not inferior to actual
ammonia, while in woolen rags it is not worth more than one-
half as much, that we can' fix no uniform price, but must de-
cide what it shall be, in each special case, separately.
V. Potash. The value of potash is diflicult to estimate, be-
cause it ma}^ vary exceedingly according to circumstances. Wood
ashes are its chief sources ; these are poor or rich in potash ac-
cording to the kind of tree that yields them, and the soil on
which it has grown. It may vary from five to twenty per cent.
Stoeckhardt, who estimates the value of ammonia at twenty
cents, makes potash worth four cents per pound. The price of
potashes can not serve as a guide, for they are never used for
agricultural purposes. Four cents is certainly high enough for
this country if it is correct for Germany.
12. Potash may be usually neglected.
Most concentrated manures contain very little or no potash.
In guano it rarely exceeds three per cent. Super-phosphate of
lime can contain none of consequence. Potash can not be econ-
omically added to manufactured manures, bacause ncra-ly pure
potash, or even the raw material from which it is extracted, viz. :
wood-ashes, has a higher commercial value for technical than for
agricultural purposes. Besides, potash is not generally deficient
in soils, and therefore farmers do not wish to pay for it as an in-
15
gredient of costly manures. It is only when a manure is pro-
fessedly sold as containing much potash, that this ingredient
deserves to be taken account of in its valuation.
13. Cor)iputing the inoney -value of concentrated manures.
In what immediately precedes, is contained the data for calcu-
lating approximatively the price that can be afforded for a high-
priced manure, if we have before us the results of a reliable an-
alysis. The actual calculation is very easy, and has been illus-
trated already in deducing the value of ammonia from Peruvian
guano. We give here a resume of the prices adopted in this
report, viz. :
Potash, per pound, 4 cents.
Insoluble phospohoric acid, per pound, - - 4^ "
Soluble " " " 12^ "
Actual, and some forms of potential ammonia, 14 "
As a further example of the calculation, here may follow the de ■
tails of the valuation of a superphosphate of lime. Analysis gave
the following percentages :
Actual ammonia, 2.39, say 2.4
Potential " 1.06, " 1.0
Soluble phosphoric acid, - - - 2.56, " 2.6
Insoluble " "... 22.98, " 23.0
Multiplying the per centage of each ingredient by its estimated
price, and adding together the products thus obtained, gives the
value of one hundred pounds ; this taken twenty times, gives
us the worth of a ton of two thousand pounds.
In the case before us, the quantity of potential ammonia is so
small that we may reckon it with the actual ammonia without
materially influencing the result. Thus,
2.4 + 1.0 = 3.4; 3.4x14 = .48, value of ammonia in 100 lbs.
2.6 X 12-|= .33, value of soluble phos. acid
in 100 pounds.
23 X .04^=§1.03, value of insol. phosphoric
acid in 100 lbs.
$1.84, total value of 100 lbs.
20
$36.80, value of one ton.
16
It is not claimed that this method of valuation is more than
rough and approximate. Usually the price demanded is more
than that obtained by calculation. In case of the superphosphate
just mentioned, the selling price is $45. There is no doubt that
it ought to be better for that money. The farmer must decide
for himself whether he can get the same fertilizing materials
more cheaply. If he can not, he may purchase such a super-
phosphate. For comparing the xvorth of different fertilizers this
method of computation is of great value, as will be seen further
on, where will be found tables giving the calculated values of all
the high-priced manures that have come into my hands oilic-
ially, during the last two years.
It is but j ust to mention here, that this method of estimating
the value of fertilizers was first proposed nine years ago by Dr.
J. A. Stoeckhardt, Professor of Agricultural Chemistry in the
Koyal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, at Tharand, near
Dresden, in Saxony, and has been adopted in principle by the
chemists of the agricultural societies in Great Britain.
The estimates I made in 1856 were much lower than those
now given. The price of manures has advanced since that time,
(Peruvian guanos ten dollars per ton,) and the prices I then pro-
posed for phosphoric acid were too small. All the estimated
values in this report are founded on the prices just given.
14. Estimation of the value of cheap manures.
The method of valuation above described is not applicable to
cheap manures, which contain but little ammonia or phosphoric
acid. Their value often depends more upon the mechanical and
chemical condition of their ingredients, than upon the quantity
of any one. The few manufactured manures of this sort., may
best be compared with some similar fertilizer of standard com-
mercial value, viz. : stable manure, leached ashes, &c. Under
the head Poudrette, examples will be given.
EXAMINATION OF COMMERCIAL MANURES.
GUANO.
1. Peruvian Guano. — The manner in which the importation
17
and sale of this standard fertilizer has been hitherto conducted,
is such as to afford a sufficient guarantee of its genuineness.
But four samples have been analyzed. All were good, as shown
by the following results :
ANALYSES OF PERUVIAN" GUANO.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
66.32
65.18
12.63
52.27
12.70
51.46
i 68.00
68.70
59.46
5.82
8 93
5.95
9 08
[ 16.03
15.98
17.86
18.85
16.32
4.60
10.05
1.69
3.64
10.50
1.52
j- 15.19
2.45
14.08
2.66
21
28
31.69
Water, )
Organic Matter, )
Ammonia potential,
" actual,
Phosphoric acid, soluble in water,
'• " insoluble "
Sand &c., insoluble in acids,
Phosphate of lime equivalent )
to total phosphoric acid, [
I. came from the store of Wm. Kellogg, Hartford, 1856.
II. " " " Wm. B. Johnson, New Haven, 1857.
III. " " " Backus & Barstow, Norwich, 1857.
lY. " " " C. Leonard, Norwalk, 1857.
A Peruvian guano is genuine and good, when it contains 15
percent of ammonia, and the same amount of phosphoric acid.
The first analyses were made more complete than is necessary
forjudging of the quality of this manure. It is sufficient, as in
the last two analyses, to ascertain the amount of loss, (water and
organic matter,) by burning, and the amount of ammonia.
I believe the fact that guano may rapidly depreciate in quality
by keeping, is not sufficiently thought of. In a note by Dr.
Krocker, in a recent German Agricultural paper, it is stated that
the loss in guano may amount to one-fifth or even one-fourth of
the whole ammonia originally present, daring a single ivinter,
especially ichen access of moist air is alloived. If guano is kept
dry and away from the air the loss is trifling. The ammonia of
a genuine guano, although to a considerable extent " existing in
possibility not in act," passes so readily into actual ammonia
that it must be reckoned as such. The phosphoric acid also, in
a Peruvian guano, is all in a readily soluble state, and it is not
fiiir to make so great a distinction between the portions soluble
and insoluble in water, as would be right in case of a manure
which has been reduced to powder by mechanical means.
18
2. Pacific Ocean Guano.
ANALYSES.
Water,
Organic matter,
Ammouia potential,
" actual,
Phosphoric acid, soluble in water,
" acid, insoluble in water,
Sand, &c., insoluble in acid,
Phosphate of lime equivalent to total phosphoric
acid, average,
Dealer's price per ton,
Calculated value per ton,
36.24
.75
1.96
2.27
23.68
2.75
36.10
.68
1.84
2.77
20.91
2.10
53.76
$50.00
$34.00
II.
21.70
32.35
.71
23.27
.51
21.44
32.33
.58
24.60
.57
51.86
$30.00
I. From a sample sent bj the importers to a dealer in Hart-
ford, 1856.
II. From a sample sent by tbe dealers in New York to the
agricultural store of Wm. B. Johnson, taken from the bags by
this gentleman in my presence.
The sample 1. when sent into this State was advertised as
nearly if not quite equal to Peruvian guano. In support of
this statement the following certificate was given : "I have an-
alyzed a sample of guano for Willet & Co., and find it to con-
the following ,
Phosphate of lime, 42.48
Carbonate " 2.26
Urate of Ammonia, ]
Phosphate " &c., V 20.54
Carbonate " )
Chloride of Sodium |
" Potassium, V 14.46
Sulphate of Soda, &;c., )
Undecomposed organic ) o op
matter, feathers, &c., j
Silicons matter, 5.10
Water and loss, 12.00
100.00
James Chilton, M. D., Chemist."
New York, October 4th, 1854.
The above analysis has a very elaborate appearance, but does
not instruct us as to the value of the sample analyzed by Dr.
19
Chilton. In flxct, it is eminently adapted to deceive ; it gives
the impression that the substance in question contains 20.5 jDer
cent, of ammonia salts, yet without actually asserting that it
contains even 1 per cent, of ammonia. Calculation shows that
so far from being " nearly if not quite equal to Peruvian guano,"
it is not worth so much by $31 per ton, and that $16 was charged
for it above its real value.
The second sample, analyzed last summer, is still poorer. In
calculating its value, I have admitted it to contain the same
amount of soluble phosphoric acid that was found in I. This
ingredient was not determined and is probably less than thus
admitted.
3. Ichahoe Guano. I quote the analysis and history of this
manure from my investigations made in 1856, in order to show
what sort of impositions have vanished from the State of Con-
necticut since a chemical scrutiny has been exercised over our
fertihzers. Ten years ago a very good guano was obtained from
the Ichaboe islands, containing 7 per cent, of ammonia, and 15
per cent, of phosphoric acid; worth therefore now, about $35
per ton. In 1851 the deposits were exhausted. In 1856 it was
announced that there was a new arrival of this superior guano,
and it was offered in New York at $40 per ton. An authentic
sample was procured at the store of the agent, A. Longett, in
New York Cit}^, and subjected to analysis.
It had a very unpromising appearance, and contained some
feathers, together with much coarse sand and gravel. Several
pounds were rubbed in a mortar to break down any soft lumps,
and then were shaken on a sieve of sixteen holes to the linear
inch.
89.1 per cent, passed the sieve.
9.4 " coarse sand and gravel.
1.5 " feathers remained.
100.0
This fine portion was analyzed as usual. The results were
calculated on the whole, including the 9.4 per cent, of sand and
gravel, under the item "sand and insoluble matters," and the
feathers under "organic matter," To the potential ammonia
2
17.43
18.52
1.37
1.41
1.53
1.51
6.97
7.64
65.72
63.87
20
found in tlie fine guano, was added 0.2 per cent, as tlie greatest
amount that could be yielded by the feathers.
Analysis of Icliaboe Guano.
Water and organic matter,
Ammonia potential,
" actual,
Phosphoric acid, ....
Sand and matter insoluble in acid,
J*hosphate of lime equivalent to total phosphoric
acid, average, .... 15.82
Dealer's price, $40.
Calculated value, $15.
This is the only manure I have examined that contained 65
per cent, of sand and gravel.
4. Baker''s Island or American Guano. — The specimen of this
guano furnished me by Mr. Secretary Dyer, is of excellent
mechanical condition, and gave results essentially agreeing with
those of Dr. Higgins and Dr. Gale, viz :
Water, organic and vegetable matters,
Insoluble matters, sand,
Phosplioric acid, ....
Ammonia, .....
Phosphate of lime equivalent to phos. acid,
Calculated value, $34.50
It thus appears that the above is an excellent quality of phos-
phatic guano. So finely divided is the phosphate of lime that
it must be dissolved with sufficient rapidity, in any moderately
retentive soil, and if it can be had at $35 per ton, I should not
hesitate to use it in preference to any superphosphate or other
phosphatic manure now in our market. It can not, however,
produce the remarkable effects of Peruvian guano, or of other
ammoniacal manures, whose efficacy depends greatly on their
ammonia.*
* Analyses made during the present 3-ear demonstrate that what is now sold in
this State as American Guano, is a very inferior article containing but 7.9 per cent,
of phosphoric acid, and chietly consisting of sulphate of lune.
S. w. J., 1859.
11.97
11.70
.10
.17
38.16
38.63
.68
83.36
21
SUPERPnOSPHATES,
The manufacture of manures bearing the general designation
of Snper2:)ho,s2)haie of Lime, first begun in this country about five
years ago, and has rapidly extended. As was to be expected,
they have proved highly useful in very numerous instances, and
when well prepared are to be looked to as the best means of
supplying phosphoric acid to crops. There is, however, no oth-
er fertilizer which so easily admits of adulteration or fraud, as
this, and none whose real value is so difficult to determine.
Simple inspection or an}^ other means short of a thorough and
costly analysis, furnishes not the slightest clue to its genuineness
and excellence.
There is so much confusion with regard to the difterent phos-
phates of lime, arising mainly from the great variety of names
that have been applied to them, that perhaps it will be a service
to many of the readers of this report, to set forth the chemistiy
of this subject in a few words. For this purpose I copy from
my published articles.
Chtmistry of tJie Phosj^kafes of Lime.
The reader will please bear in mind, that phosphate of lime is
in chemical language a salt : which means — in a chemical sense
be it remembered — a compound of two classes of bodies, the
one called acids, the other bases.
These bodies follow the universal natural laws of comhinaiion
in definite i^roportions, and the numbers expressing these propor-
tions, are termed equivalents.
"We can best illustrate this with a body like sulphate of lime,
(plaster of Paris, gypsum,) which is a salt consisting of but one
acid, and one base, and but one equivalent of each.
The acid is sulphuric acid, its equivalent is 40
The base is lime, its equivalent is 28
The salt is sulphate of lime, its equivalent is 68
The above becomes intelligible when it is considered that in
every specimen of pure gypsum that has ever been examined,
the lime and sulphuric acid are j)resent in exactly the propor-
22
tions indicated by tlie numbers 40 and 28, and it has been proved
a hundred times, that when lime and sulphuric acid are brought
together in such circumstances that they can unite, they always
do unite in the above proportions. This is what is meant by
the law of definite proportions.
The word equivalent simply means that 28 parts by weight,
grains, pounds, &c., of lime, are equal to, or go as far, in making
a salt, as -iO grains, pounds, &c., of sulphuric acid.
Unlike sulphuric acid, (one equivalent of wdiich usually com-
bines with but one equivalent of a base,) one equivalent of phos-
phoric acid usually unites with three equivalents of base; and
these three equivalents may be all of one base, or two of one
base and one of another, or, finall}^, may be all of different ba-
ses. What is most remarkable is, that toater may act as a base ;
but it is not customary to allow the water to figure in the name
of the compound ; and in this way, the three phosphates that
contain lime and water as the basic ingredients, are all called
phosphates of lime. They are distinguished from each other by
a variety of prefixes, unfortunately numerous, and none of which
are strictly in accordance with the general principles that regu-
late chemical name-making.
The constitution of these three phosphates of lime may be
represented as follows :
The first is phosphoric acid (72), lime (28), lime (28), Hme (28).
The second is phosphoric acid (72), lime (28), lime (28), water (9.)
The third is phosphoric acid (72), lime (28), water (9), water (9.)
The equivalents are given with each ingredient, and by adding
them together we find the equivalent of each phosphate.
The 1st, 72 of acid, and 84 of base, is 156.
The 2d, 72 " " and G5 " " is 137.
The 3d, 72 " " and 46 " " is 118.
What is the use of these equivalents? maybe asked. In 156
parts (ozs. or lbs.) of the 1st are 75 parts, (ozs. or lbs.) of phos-
phoric acid: in 137 parts of the 2d, and in 118 parts of the 3d,
is the same quantity. A simple operation of "rule of three,"
will reduce these quantities to imxents^ and thus we may more
readily compare their composition. .
23
Percent composition of the phosphates of lime.
1
2
3
Phosphoric acid,
- 46.15
52.55
61.02
Lime,
53.85
40.88
23.73
Water, -
-
6.57
15.25
100.00 100.00 100.00
With regard to the names of these phosphates, I have already-
hinted that much confusion exists.
To No. 1 have been applied the names, nentral, basic, ordi-
nary, tri-, and bone-phosphate. To No. 2, bi-, di-, and neutral
phosphate. To No. 3, mono-, bi-, acid, and superphosphate.
No. 1, we may designate as hone-ijhosphate of lime, because it
is the chief earthy ingredient of bones, or at any rate it remains
when bones are burned, and constitutes the larger share of bone-
ashes. It is almost absolutely insoluble in pure water ; but dis-
solves perceptibly in water containing in solution salts of am-
monia, or common salt, or carbonic acid. It is also the principal
ingredient of the so-called mineral phosphates, — of Apatite, that
occurs abundantly in the iron mines of northern New York, of
the Eupyrchroite of Crown Point, and the Phosphor-ite of Estra-
madura in Spain, and of Hurdstown, New Jersey. In the fossil
bones, the so-called Coproliies of certain districts in England, and
in the phosphatic nodules of the silurian rocks of Canada, a va-
riable quantity of bone-phosphate of lime is contained. The
phosphoric acid of all the genuine guanos exists mostly in com-
bination with lime as bone-phosphate.
No. 2, most commonly called the neutral j^hosphate of lime,
deserves notice as occurring mixed with bone phosphate in the
Columbian guano, and in the similar phosphatic guanos recently
imported by the Philadelphia Guano Company. It will be no-
ticed further on.
The agricultural value of phosphoric acid, and of the phos-
phates of lime is sufficiently understood. To them, bones main-
ly owe their efficacy as a fertilizer. It is well known that, al-
though bones are highly useful when applied to the soil in a
coarsely-broken state, they are far more valuable if reduced to
small fragments, or better still, if ground to dust. This is be-
24
cause notliing can enter the plant in a solid form. All tliat a
crop absorbs through its roots must be dissolved in the water of
the soil. The bone-phosphate of lime is only slightly soluble in
water, and is of course very slowly presented to the plant. The
more finely it is divided or pulverized, the more surface it expo-
ses to the action of water and the more rapidly it dissolves. By
grinding it is only possible to reduce bones to a gritty dust, fine
perhaps to the unaided eye, but still coarse, when seen under the
microscope. Chemistry furnishes a cheap means of extending
the division to an astonishing degree, and enables us to make
bone-rnanure perfect both in its mechanical and chemical quali-
ties.
This brings us to No. 3, or su-perpliosiAate of lime^ which is
the characteristic ingredient of the genuine commercial article
known by that name, in which, however, it is largely mixed
with other substances. Its peculiarity is, ready solubility in
water. It may be prepared from either No, 1, or No,, 2, by
adding to these phosphoric acid, or by removing lime, in j^res-
ence of water. In practice lime is removed.
If to 156 parts (one equivalent) of bone phosphate of lime,
we add 80 parts (two equivalents) of sulphuric acid,* with suf-
ficient water to admit of an intimate and perfect mixture, then
the 80 parts of sulphuric acid take 56 parts (two equivalents) of
lime and form sulphate of lime, while the phosphoric acid re-
tains 28 parts (one equivalent) of lime, and 18 parts (two equiv-
alents) of water replace the lime removed by the sulphuric acid,
so that there results 136 parts of sulphate of lime, and 118 parts
of superphosphate.
The manufacture of good superphosphate of lime, consists es-
sentially in subjecting some form of bone-phosphate of lime —
it may be fresh or burned bones, mineral-phosphates or phos-
phatic guanos — to the action of sulphuric acid. The product of
such treatment contains sulphate of lime, superphosphate of lime,
and still a greater or less share of undecomposed bone-phosphate,
together with some free sulphuric acid, because the materials
can not be brought into such thorough contact as to ensure com-
plete action,
* Oil of Vitriol is a compound of about 75 per cent, of sulphuric acid, with 25
per cent, of water.
25
The reader can easily perform a simple experiment that illus-
trates the change which superphosphate of lime, or any soluble
phosphate, always undergoes when brought into the soil. Stir
a spoonful of superphosphate in a tumbler of water ; let it settle
and then pour off the clear liquid into another tumbler, (if no
superphosphate is at hand, use instead of the liquid just men-
tioned, strong vinegar in which some bits of bones have stood
for a few days.) Now stir a few lumps of salteratus or soda, in
water, and pour it gradually into the first liquid. Immediately
a white cloud, or ineciiyiiate^ as the chemist calls it, is formed ;
at the same time the liquid will foam like soda water, from the
escape of carbonic acid gas.
This white cloud \& precijiitated hone-phosphate of lime, and does
not essentially differ from the original bone-phosphate, except
that it is inconceivably finer than can be obtained by any me-
chanical means. The particles of the finest bone-dust will not
average smaller than one hundredth of an inch, while those of
this precipitated phosphate are not more than one twenty-thou-
andth of an inch in diameter.*
Since the particles of the precipitated phosphate are so very
much smaller than those of the finest bone-dust, we can imder-
stand that their action as a manure would be correspondingly
more rapid.
In flict, the application of superphosphate to the soil, is always
speedily followed by the formation of this precipitated phosphate ;
the iron, lime, jDotash, &c., of the soil, having the same effect as
that produced by the salferatus or soda in the above experiments.
The advantage of dissolving, or rather acting upon bones with
sulphuric acid, is then, not to furnish the plant with a new food;
but to present an old dish in a new shape, more readily accessi-
ble to the plant. In addition to the advantage of sub-division
thus presented, another not less important is secured ; viz : dis-
trihuiion. This may be illustrated as follows : If one part of a
quantity of superphosphate be mixed with chalk, lime, or ashes
before use, while another portion is directly applied, in both ca-
ses precipitated phosphate will be furnished to the soil. The
* Prof. Ogden N. Rood, of the Troy Universitj, has had the kiuduess to meas-
ure them under the microscope at my request.
26
suh-cUvisio'/i will be equal, but the distribution will be unlike. lu
the first case, the ready-formed phosphate is very imperfectly
mixed with the soil, by the mechanical operations of tillage. In
the latter instance, if the superphosphate be scattered on the
surface, it is unaffected until a rain falls upon it. Then the su-
perphosphate dissolves, and trickles or soaks down into the soil,
meeting here with a particle of lime or potash, and depositing
a particle of bone-phosphate, traveling on a little way, and de-
positing another, and so filling the whole soil to a certain depth
with the precious fertilizer.
It seems then that it is important not only that the super-
phosphate be made, but that it remain such, until strewn on the
soil.
I would suggest that the simplest, and for agricultural pur-
poses, the most accurate way of designating the phosphates of
lime, and all other phosphates, is to divide them into two classes,
soluble and insoluble, and always to base calculations on the^:)7i05-
•plioric acid they contain, because it, and not lime or water, is the
valuable ingredient of them all. Accordingly, in all my an-
alyses, I have invariably stated separately the amount of phos-
phoric acid soluble in water and the quantity insoluble in that
vehicle of vegetable nutriment.
For the sake of comparison with the common standards, the
quantity of bone phosj)hate equivalent or corresponding to the
phosphoric acid, has been included in the analytical tables. The
amount of bone phosphate of lime is obtained by multiplying
the phosphoric acid by 13 and dividing the product by 6.
What ougid to be accej^ted as the standard of comjwsition in a com-
mercial superphosphate ?
The answer to this question is : as good an article as can be
manufactured on the large scale.
There are two classes of good superphosphates. One is repre-
sented by the following analysis made by me in 1852, on what
then was Mapes' improved sujDcrphosphate :
Ammonia, . . . - . 2.78
Soluble phosphoric acid, - - 10.65
Insoluble " " - - 10.17
27
Here we have 21 per cent, of phosplioric acid, onc-lialf of
which is soluble in water. The proportion of soluble phosphoric
acid is sufficiently large for a quick and energetic action, while
the still insoluble phosphoric acid renders its effect more lasting.
The 3 per cent, of ammonia is a constituent which makes the
manure more generally useful than it would be otherwise. Such
a manure is worth as follows :
Ammonia 3 per cent x 14 =$0.12 x20= $8.10
Soluble phos. acid, 11 " " xl2i= 1.37ix20=$27.50
Insoluble " 10 " " x 4*= 0.45 x20= $9.00
Total value, $44.90
This sample is the only one of its class that has hitherto ftdlen
into my hands.
The other kind is, strictly speaking, a superphosphate, con-
taining but little insoluble phosphoric acid, and no ammonia. It
is precisely what it is called, and is intended to be an adjunct to
other fertilizers. The following statement of composition and
worth — the average of four best English samples, according to
Prof. Way's analyses — gives an idea of this manure :
Soluble phosphoric acid, 13.23, worth per ton, $33.20
Insoluble " " 3.07, " " $2.80
Total value, $36.00
The only specimen of such a superphosphate that I have
analyzed, is that made by B. M. Rhodes & Co., of Baltimore,
Maryland.
Besides these two classes of superphosphates, there is another,
which indeed includes many good manures, but they hardly de-
serve to be called superphosphates, as they contain but two or
three per cent, of soluble phosphoric acid. They are, however,
called superphosphates, but we cannot admit that they are any
thing better than second-rate articles.
In stating the composition and value of the superphosphates I
have examined, I shall class together those coming from the same
manufacturer, or otherwise such as most nearly agree in com-
position. This plan will enable us to trace the improvement or
28
deterioration in tlie manufacture, wlien numerous samples liave
been examined, and, otherwise, will facilitate comparison.
Jifljj&s' Superphosphate — Newark, New Jersey.
The best superphosphate that has ever come under my exam-
ination, was the one that is first given in the table below. The
sample analyzed in 1856 had but half the value of the first ; and
in 1857 the three specimens analyzed are worth but one-third as
much. It is clear that this is a brand not to be depended upon,
and the material that has come into Connecticut the past year is
hardly w^orth a long transportation.
Mapes' Improved.
Mapes' Nitrogenized.
I.
II.
III. 1
IV.
V.
er,
1852.
1857.
1856.
1857.
1857.
"Water,
Organic and vol. matt
4.54
22.96
7.90
15.04
i 43.24
42.72
41.68
11.15
18.65
21.61
26.29
Sand and matters
insol. in acids.
•
1.48
13.90
6.20
6.57
7.76'
16.91
4.18
Lime,
28.08
23.55
Sulplinric acid,
j
2.38
Carbonic acid,
none
6.54
none
7.52
Plios. acid soluble.
I0.G5
none
1.12
1.07
0.58
none
none
" " insoluble,
10.17
13.56-13.20
9.18
9.11
10.12
10,19-9.60
9.85
Ammonia actual,
" potential,
\
2.78
1.16
1.54
2.11
1.48
2.16
|- 2.28
1.16
Phos. lime equiva-
lent to phos. acid,
\
45.11
28.99
av. 22.44
21.43
21.34
Calculated value,
$44. 1
$15
,
?21.
1
1
$14.50
$12.50
I. Furnished by Edwin Hoyt, Esq., New Canaan, Ct.
II. From store of Backus & Barstow, Norwich, Ct.
III. From a Hartford dealer.
IV. From store of Backus & Barstow, Norwich, Ct., average
from many bags.
V. From C. Leonard's store, Norwalk, Ct.
Mechanical state mostly good.
29
Deburg\s Siqxr phosphate — Williamsburg, Brooklyn, L. I.
The sample analyzed in 1856 was of a very fair quality.
The last year it is seen, however, that there is a serious falling
off.
Water, organic and volatile matters,
Sand, and matters insoluble in aeids,
Phosphoric acid soluble in water,
" " insoluble "
Ammonia actual,
" potential,
Phos. of lime equivalent to phos. acid.
Deburg's Superphosphate.
I.
1852.
27.65
8.45
5.96
14.37
1.38
26.24
8.80
15.78
av. 45.56
II.
III.
1856.
1857.
24.57
21.23
25.20
6.89
7.37
2.56
2.46
.51
22.98
22.53
17.61
2.39
1.06
2.25
1.24
i 1.44
54.74
39.26
$36.25
$21.50
Calculated value, . $32.
I. From the agricultural store, New Haven, Ct.
II. From the factory — taken from a heap in my presence.
III. From Messrs Backus & Barstow, Norwich — sample made
up by taking a spoonful from each bag of a large lot.
Mechanical condition, good.
Coe's Sup)erp]iospihate — Middletown, Ct.
This fertilizer, manufactured in Connecticut, has been sub-
jected to pretty severe scrutiny, and has maintained a good de-
gree of uniformity in composition. The variations are perhaps
not greater than are necessarily incidental to the manufacture.
80
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81
I., II., III., IV. From the agricultural stores of New Haven
and Hartford.
V. From store of Backus and Barstow, Norwich, Ct.
VI. and VII. From Henry Hull, Esq., Naugatuck, Ct.
Mechanical condition uniformly good.
Coe & Company''s SiijyerjyJwsjjhate — Boston, Mass.
This manure, furnished by Henry Hull, Esq., of Naugatuck,
Ct., is of a grayish white color, and is in good mechanical con-
dition. Its analysis resulted as follows :
Water, organic and volatile matters, - - 26.70 26.19
Sand and insoluble matter, - - - 7.15 6. i 9
Solul^le phosphoric acid, - - - none
Insoluble u u , . . 19.98 20.27
Potential ammonia, - - - - 3.06
Phosphate of lime equivalent to phos. acid, av., 43.59
Calculated value, $26.50.
This manure is wrongly named.* It is a good bone-manure
at $30 per ton.
L'loycVs Super p]iOS2)hate — Providence, E. 1.
This fertilizer I believe enjoys a good reputation as compared
with other similar manures. Its texture is fine. It is apparently
made from unburned bones. Its composition is as follows :
Water, organic and volatile matters -
Sand and insoluble " -
Lime, . . . - -
Sulphuric acid, . - - -
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Insoluble » u .
Potential ammonia, . . - -
Phosphate of lime, equivalent to phos. acid, av..
Calculated value, $31.
The proportion of soluble phosphoric acid is considerably
above the average. The total amount is however small.
42.15
42.48
7.00
5.20
20.61
19.50
11.80
5.53 )
11.41 \
15.50
2.48
2.55
35.14
* I have since learned tliat this sample was mis-labelled. Messrs. Coe & Co., sell
it as " Steamed Bone." s. w. j.
82
Rhodes' Superphosphate — Baltimore, Md.
In my address before the State Agricultural Society a year
ago, I made mention of Rhodes' superphosphate to illustrate a
common fault in the analysis of commercial manures, viz : cal-
culating or inferring a result from insufficient grounds, instead
of actually deciding the matter experimentally. An analysis
of this manure was quoted from the proprietor's circular, where-
in the total amount of phosphoric acid is estimated, and from
the quantity of sulphuric acid present is inferred the proportion
of soluble phosphoric acid. I stated that doubtless a fuller anal-
ysis would demonstrate that the amount of the soluble phos-
phoric acid was considerably smaller than represented.
The sample with which I have been furnished by Mr. Dyer
gave the following results in three analyses :
Vrator, orprauic and volatile matters,
Insoluble matters, saud, &c., - - .
Lime, . . . - -
Soluble phosphoric acid, ...
Insoluble " " .
Total " " .
Potential anmionia.
Phosphate of lime equivalent to phosphoric acid.
Calculated value, $:!2.25.
The variation in the analytical results is due to the difficulty
of averaging the manure. "When rubbed in a mortar it becomes
slightly pasty and can not be very thoroughly intermixed.
The mechanical condition of this superphosphate is unexcep-
tionable.
In a new edition of their circular, Messrs. Rhodes & Co. pub-
lish analyses and report made by Drs. Higgins and Bickell, ac-
cording to which this superphosphate contained, in four samples
respectively, the following amounts of phosphoric acid :
12 3 4 5
Soluble phosphoric acid, - - - 14.32 16.01 17.73 17.56 11.60
Insoluble " " . . none. 1.49 none. 1.22 3.87
Total, ..... 14.32 17.49 17.73 18.78 15.47
4 Is the statement made in their circular which I read last
year before this Society. 5 Is the average result of my own ac-
27.60
27.73
Av
2G.60
-era see.
27.31
3.22
2.47
10.05
5.24
20.13
20.25
20.19
12.13
11. G5
11.03
11.60
3.91
3.77
3.94
3.87
16.04
15.42
14.97
15.47
.24
.24
.24
38.80
33
tual determinations. It is seen that the statement in my address
is confirmed, in case of the sample I analyzed. At the same
time, the difiference is not seriously great.
In the analyses of Messrs, Iliggins and Bickell, several per
cent of soda are given, I have not taken the trouble to estimate
this ingredient, which has no significance in case of an expen-
sive fertilizer.
Other Superph ospli a tes.
"VVallingfc.rd, Ct.
I.
1857.
matters, 48.30
; 8.98
Water, organic and volatil
Sand and insoluble
Limo, j
Sulphuric acid, |10.G7
Soluble phosphoric acid, j 2.02 (•_
Insoluble " " i 9.72 )
Potential Ammonia, i 7.35
Phosphate of lime, equivalent to pliosphoric aciil, 21.34
Calculated value, ! $34.50
48.05
8.78
12.00
6.92
I'uck's bono siiper-
lilmspliato,
Hartlunl, Ct.
11.
1857.
51.59
.GO
20.53
i 14.25
2.50
30.79
$31.00
51.4G
.98
20.36
14.17
2.54
I. This was furnished me by ISlr. Parmelee of New Haven.
It contains much potential ammonia in the form of gelatine, but
the material is so poorly pulverized, consisting of coarsely-crush-
ed bones, that its action must be slow, A large reduction must
therefore be made from the calculated price,
II, Is in good form. The sample furnished was small, so that
I was unable to determine the soluble phosphoric acid,
COLUMBIAN OR EOCK GUANO.
This substance, which has also been called a native superphos-
phate of lime, is reported to come from certain islands in the
Carilj1)ean Sea, It occurs in hard stony masses, which vary much
in structure, color and composition. The rock that is richest in
phosphoric acid is concretionary in structare. Externally its
color is gray or white, internally br(jwn or black. This rock,
though quite tough under the hammer, may be readily reduced
to a fine powder, having a yellowish (jr brownish-gray color, and
in this form it now appears in the market. It has been supposed
34
that this guano is formed from the excrements of gulls, pelicans,
and cormorants, which are the sole inhabitants of the islands
where it is found. These islands are a hundred or more in num-
ber, and it is said that the guano exists there in enormous quan-
tities. The rock guano consists essentially of phosphates, but
is more or less intermixed with other mineral matters. It con-
tains but a trifling amount of ammonia, or of ammonia-yielding
substances.
The composition is seen from the following table :
85
P 2 2 1>
S" o o 3
S" s. s
h- ' CT) en 00
CO jfi- ►-' _ ^ 'r^ p'-' ^" ^
rf- >-• oj I'j ►-• cc' o o in
oi CO o o ^ i-:* o CO 1-0
^ . t"' !"■ P" P^ P°
CO bO CO bo O en CT
O CO CO CO o> — ' C-i
CO ^ ^
t^ So
p IC CO
poo
o o
O CO I—'
o p p p
tc b b -I
to (-- L-; ti
36
I. and II., ground guano, sent to editors of Ilomestcad, by the
proprietors of the guano.
Ill,, unground guano, sent to editors of Homestead, by the
proprietors of tlic guano.
IV., from a gentleman — a purcliaser — near Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
v., from the store of C. Leonard, Norwalk.
The above five analj^ses were made under my direction.
VI., VII., VIII. and IX., are quoted from a paper by Wm. F.
Taylor, of Philadelphia, in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia
Academy of Natural Sciences, March, 1857. The specimens were
rock-samples, furnished by Dr. D. Luther, President of the Phil-
adelphia Guano Company.
X., ground commercial sample ; analysis by Drs. Higgins &
Bickell.
Richness in phosphoric acid. — This, the only important ingre-
dient, ranges in the majority of the above analyses at about
forty per cent. In analyses V., IV., and VIII., it falls 5, 6, and
8 per cent, lower. In case of IX., we have but 20 per cent, of
phosphoric acid. Analysis VIII. and IX., were made on a
material quite different in external appearance from the rock fur-
nishing the other samples. The Philadelphia Guano Company
sent me specimens of these inferior kinds a year or more ago.
They appear to be, and actually are, largely intermixed with
sand, though when pulverised they can scarcely be distinguished
by the eye from the best sorts. I had begun analyses of the
specimens put into my possession, but their completion was ren-
dered unnecessary by the appearance of Mr. Taylor's extended
investigation. They contain little or no lime, and the j)hosphoric
acid is combined with oxyd of iron or alumina.
The best qualities of Columbian guano form the ricJiest Icnoicn
source of large quantities of phosp)horic acid, if, indeed, there are
large quantities of the best quality. But the above analyses
show that even the commercial article found in the agricultural
stores, varies considerably in value, while some of the rock sam-
ples are worth but half as much as the best qualities ; and, there-
fore, bone-black, or bone-ash, is equal in this respect to the
average of the best samples hitherto analyzed.
37
Soluhility of the lihosplLoric acid.—T\\Q circulars of tlic Plulack-l-
pliia Guano Company give an analysis of tliis guano, hy Dr.
Cbilton of New York, according to wliicli it contains 13.1i per
cent, of solaUe j^hosphaie of lime. J. C. Bootli reports therein,
tliat Columbian guano contains 6.05 per cent, of free 2}hos2)hone
acid, or 32.27 per cent, of soluhle phosphate of lime. Dr. David
Stewart, cliemist to the State Agricultural Society of Maryland,
in an analysis he furnishes, makes it to contain 5.23 per cent. (.)f
soluble phosphoric acid. Dr. A. A. Ilaycs of Boston, in his an-
alyses, states that it contains 11.4 per cent, of phosphoric acid
more than is requisite to form bone-phosphate of lime. lie says
it is in flict a kind of natural hi-phosphale of lime. J. C. Booth,
in analyzing another sample, found 9.6 per cent, of //-ee phosphoric
acid. On the strength of these statements, the Columbian guano
has been called a native superphosphate of lime. It is easy to un-
derstand how some of the gentlemen above-named have com-
mitted the inadvertency of asserting that the substance in ques-
tion contains free phosphoric acid, or superphosphate of lime.
The error is more to be attributed to the looseness of language
than to any other cause.
The fact is, that some of these specimens of Columbian guano
contain, in addition to the ordinary hune-pltospiliate of lime, the
composition of which is —
phosphoric acid, lime, lime, lime —
more or less of the generally called neutral p)hosp)]iate, which
is —
phosphoric acid, lime, lime, water.
There is in it, however, no superphosphate of lime, which is —
phosphoric acid, lime, water, water.*
This neutral phosphcitc is slightly soluble in water, and is slowly
decomposed by boiling water. Thus, in analyses I., II., \l.
and VIL, about 0.8 per cent, of phosporic acid was dissolved ;
and in III,, by long continued washing with hot water, 2.67 per
cent was made soluble. This neutral phosphate is decomposed
by carbonic acid, and hence is doubtless readily available to
vcs'etation.
* See that part of this report rckitive to superphosphate of hme.
38
As concerns tlie value of those varieties wliicli consist cliieflj
of phosphates of iron, and alumina, Y,, VIII. and IX., I am un-
able to state whether or not they are capable of readily yielding
their phosphoric acid to vegetation. As artificially prepared,
these phosphates are totally insoluble in pure water, and are not
easily decomposable. In fact, nearly all the knowledge w^e have
of these compounds, leads to the idea that they are unadapted to
feed the growing plant. Some writers have not hesitated to de-
clare them quite valueless for agricultural purposes. The only
satisfactory evidence, however, must be brought from direct
trials with them in the soil, for bodies are soluble there, which
ordinarily are accepted as the types of insolubility.
The Pkince Salm Horstmak, of Germany, w^ho has devoted
much time and means, to studies having a direct bearing onagri-
culture, found, indeed, that phosphate of iron is actually assimi-
lated by vegetation ; but we do not yet know whether it may be
appropriated with such ease as to adapt it for a fertilizer.
I had hoped to institute some experiments with a view to de-
termine this point, but have not found the opportunity.*
POUDRETTE.
Since chemistry has explained in such a beautiful manner the
action of manures, and made evident what enormous quantities
of fertilizing material are daily lost to agriculture, the question
of economizing the effete matters which accumulate in large
towns, has excited deep interest.
The subject is not merely one of agricultural importance, but
has extensive bearings upon the health of densely populated
countries. Those substances which most easily pass into putre-
faction, and then become in the highest degree disagreeable and
dangerous to the inhabitants of cities, possess, as fertilizers, the
greatest value to the farmer..
Not many years since it was common to find large cities filled
with filth, which had accumulated during generations, with no
other means of removal than the natural agencies of decay, or
* Investigations that have recently come to my knowledge, prove that the phos-
phates of iron and alumina are available as food to plants.
S. ^y. J., 1859.
39
rains miglit furnish. Not a few of the fearful plagues that in
former centuries have ravaged the capitals of the old world, trace
their origin most unequivocally, to the disgusting negligence in
these matters, then prevalent.
It is therefore fortunate for a people, when the refuse of the
town, instead of poisoning the atmosphere and generating terri-
ble pestilences, can be transported to the fields of the country,
and under the wonderful transmutations of agriculture be con-
verted into healthful food.
Numerous efforts have been made with a view to produce a
good manure from the night-soil of cities, but so far as I can
learn, with very limited success, if the quality of the product
hitherto brought into market is a proper criterion for judgment.
Practice and science concur in attributing to human excre-
ments, very high fertilizing properties. It is well-known that the
richness of manure depends upon the richness of the food that
supports the animal producing the manure. It is equally well-
known that, on the whole, no animal is so Avell fed as man.
Notwithstanding these fiicts the manures that have been pre-
pared from night-soil, and brought into commerce under the
names Poudret/e, Ta-Feu, tfr., are not remarkable for their value.
It is true that good manures are made, but they are by no means
so concentrated as reasonably to command a high price, or war-
rant much outlay for their transportation.
Some of the causes that conspire to this result, become evident
from the following considerations:
The night-soil as usually collected has already lost the chief
part of its original value. Unless special arrangements are made
to prevent the escape of urine from the vaults of privies, the
greater part of it soaks away directly into the adjoining ground
and is lost. Now the value of the urine voided by an adult man
during one year, for example, is much greater than that of the
corresponding solid excrements. It contains, according to
Stoeckhardt, (Chem. Field Lectures, page 72) :
Double the quantity of phosphoric acid.
Four times as much nitrogen.
Six times as much alkalies.
Not only is the urine itself lost to a considerable degree, but
40
in tlie usual construction of privies it foils upon tlie solid excre-
ments and washes away a considerable share of their soluble and
active matters, so that the contents of a vault, even though quite
fresh, are of very inferior value.
Again, the vaults are only emptied at considerable intervals,
between which, especially in warm weather, a rapid putrefaction
of their contents takes place, by which a good share of the
nitrogen that remains after the urine has leached out the mass,
escapes into the air in the shape of ammonia compounds, and is
lost. After the night-soil has passed these two stages of deteri-
oration, it is usually no longer suitable for the preparation of a
concentrated manure, even supposing it free from foreign mat-
ters.
But again, considerable quantities of worthless matter, coal-
ashes, &c., find their way into the vaults, which are, indeed,
often an ornniam fjathernrii for all sorts of refuse. Often the
slops of the kitchen run into them, and the rains flow through
them on their way to the deeper earth, washing in sand and
dirt, and washing out the valuable ingredients.
Fi'om these facts, it is seen that the raw material used in mak-
ing poudrette and tafeu, must be of variable, and for the most
part, of inferior value.
The process of manufacturing ought to consist merely in con-
verting the night-soil into a sliape convenient for transportation,
and if possible concentrating the valuable ingredients. The
manure is made of the best qmditjj by treating the night-soil with
sulphuric acid and then rapidly drying by artificial heat. The
acid prevents the loss of ammonia, while the drying removes
the worthless water, and brings the mass into a suitable state
for handling. The manure is manufoctured most checq'ihj by
mixing it with some drying or absorbent material, as peat, or
svramp muck, or the charcoal of the same, and drying by expo-
sure to the air. The first method is expensive and raises the
cost of the product for above its value, unless the raw material
is of unusually good quality. The second process dilutes the
night-soil with matters which are indeed very useful, but must
be sold very cheaply.
Accordino- to Nesbit's careful calculation, fresh human excre-
41
ments, solid and liquid together, when dried completely, 3'ield a
material liaving the following per centage composition in round
numbers :
Ammonia, (a considerable share not actual but
potential,) - 20
Other organic matters, ----- 62
Phosphoric acid, .._.-. 3
Other inorganic matters, ----- 25
100
The value of this, estimated by the prices adopted in the pres-
ent report, is $60, and it therefore approaches Peruvian guano
in commercial worth.
How effectually the causes I have enumerated deteriorate the
value of night-soil before it is converted into a portable manure,
is seen by the following analyses :
42
i §-•«
■=
j_^
00
lO
a^'2
2 (!<
Yard-
lanure
naixed
ung
«5
3
.tc
n
c
P
o
CO
1^ -a
s
W
?; a C
mI^
J3
o
o
f^S"
t,
?■«
, ij a
^
"H^;
~
-i(
,—1
-+1
o
o
CO M lO
CI
CO
o o
^gS
■3
o
2^
Q
,__^
^
,/
c;
ti
C
^1
O
O
5
'C
-5
CO
CO
CO
c
>o
^
^
-1
H
•M
l:^
-5
^
_2 uo
^^ ? to
■ " '" ^ ]<=>
!- o b 'r >- ' "^
iSpq^H
§;<
c:
(^
II
be
'S 1-1
'> >
(M
00
-f
CI 1.1 m o CD C5 QO
O lO
o
oo
c4
-+| -M o o o I-- CO
c-i CO r^ 2 .-^ ■ rH
O i-I
CO
Ti<
o
!^ *
H
^
.=■2 *-
CO .—I -^
^ , . |io 00
r- t— lO -H uoi
(m' o" ^ '■^- "^ ^'
t3 -S .S 'a 5
C^ r-" r^ rH ^
..a ^ ^ •- ^ c
■s a-g
5^.^ v.' ^ O p Ci
1-5 ^3 S ^2^1^-2 S
43
The analj^ses I.-V. are quoted from foreign journals. Anal-
yses YI.-IX. were made in the Yale Laboratory. I. represents
the composition of a mixture of two |3arts of turf-coal, with one
part of night soil, and shows how poor an article is procured
when it is known what is the process of making. It will be
seen that although no dirt or sand was mixed with the uight soil,
yet the amount of fertilizing matter is very small. The further
details of the original analysis show that besides the ingredients
stated above, there was but 5.3 per cent, of valuable matter in
the poudrette, and this was mostly sulphate of lime.
II. and III. are analyses of poudrette made in France, the
country where this manufacture originated, and from whose lan-
guage the name is derived. There is every reason to su}i})ose
that these specimens were prepared in the best manner; blood
and butchers' offal were employed in the latter.
IV. and y. show the composition of a poudrette made at Dres-
den in Saxony, the addition to which of some sulphate of am-
monia, is claimed by Dr. Ahendroth, the chemist who superin-
tends its manufacture, to entitle it to the name of a guano. It
does not differ materially in value from the French poudrette.
I have before me a pamphlet setting forth the principles that, it
is professed, guide the production of this manure, and have full
faith that the business is managed as well as can be. The price
of the article is about $1.00 per cwt. Dr. Mueller, chemist to
the Agricultural Experiment Station at Chemnitz, in Saxony,
the author of one of the above analyses, remarks concerning it,
as follows : " In an experimental trial made last year (1855) at
the Chemnitz Agricultural Experiment Station, with the pur-
pose of testing the effect of various manures, the same amount of
»2one// being invested in each application, it resulted that the
Saxon guano had the least effect of all. This led me to make
the accompanying analysis. A glance at the figures is enough,
without an 3^ actual trial, to show that no great elfect can be ex-
pected from such a manure. From the quantity of valuable mat-
ters present, six cwi. of this might be considered equivalent to
one cwt. of Peruvian guano ; but when the form is taken into
account — nearly one-half of the ammonia being inert, and the
phosphoric acid existing as almost insoluble phosphate of iron —
44
its value must be estimated lower. Tlie other inc-redients are
of less importance, and, at any rate, may be procured more
clieaply from other sources."
VI. represents the composition of a poudrette manufactured
by the so-called Liebig Manufacturing Co., at East Hartford, Ct.
It does not claim to be a concentrated fertilizer, its price being
but $1.50 per barrel when sold in quantity. It is not just then
to estimate its value from the ammonia and phosphoric acid alone,
for the cheaper a manure is, the more must its less valuable in-
gredients figure in estimating its worth.
These have not been separately estimated, for the reason that
no calculation of any permanent value, could be founded on one
analysis of a material that is so likely to vary in these ingre-
dients, especially where it is sold by bulk. This being a kind
of manure that is applied in large quantity, and the ingredients
being in proportions more nearly approaching the demands of
the growing plant, than is the case with concentrated fertilizers;
whose true function is to make up special deficiencies in the soil,
we must appeal to practice for precise information as to its worth.
Again, it has but a local value, for being bulky, it can not re-
pa}^ mucli expense in transportation, and therefore should not
be judged by the general principles that commend or condemn
a superphosphate or guano ; but by the particular wants of the
soil in the neighborhood where it is sold, and the local circum-
stances that there affect the price of other cheap fertilizers.
VII., VIII. and IX. are analyses of the Lodi Cc/s. Pov.dreUe,
prepared from the night soil of New York city. The extrava-
gant and persistent claims that have been set up in flivor of this
manure, led to a complete investigation of its merits. To insure
a fair examination, general analyses were made on three sam-
ples, and one of them was submitted to a full and minute analy-
sis. The samples differed much in their degree of dryness. VII,
fresh from New York, was quite moist, almost wet. VIII. was
moist, but still powdery. IX. was dry to the feel.
In all these commercial poudrettes we observe a very large
proportion of valueless ivaLer and sand, viz : 60 to 75 per cent.
The quantity of organic matters averages at about 20 per
cent. This yields but 1.2 per cent of ammonia. There remains
45
but 4.5 per cent, of otlicr fertilizing substances. Tlie analyses,
X.-XIII. enable us to compare these poudrettes with common
stable or yard manure. Analysis X. represents tlie composition
of dried yard manure. Fresli yard manure contains from (^b to
75 per cent, of water, so tliat we must take but one-third to one-
fourth of the numbers there giyen. We see then that the best of
tliese ]joudrettes does not exceed dried yard manure in value, or is
worth hut three to four times as ■much as its iceigld of common yard
manure, if we judge alone from chemical composition.
But the question of manurial yaluc is by no means a purely
chemical one. As already insisted upon, iheform as well as the
kind and quality of matter, must be duly considered. In a con-
centrated fertilizer the assumption that the ingredients are in a
state to be readily ayailable to the plant, is the indispensable
basis of calculations founded on composition. In discussing the
yalue of cheap manures, this matter becomes of paramount im-
portance. In these respects the Liebig Manufocturing Go's. Pou-
drette is unexceptionable. It is free from coarse refuse, and hay-
ing undergone fermentation, it would seem able to produce an
immediate and ra})id effect. It can be applied with seeds by a
drill, does not impregnate the soil with the germs of noxious
weeds, and has other obvious advantages oyer barn-yard or sta-
ble manure. From a chemical point of view we may assume it
to be worth as much as three times its weight of stable manure.
Farmers must decide for themselves whether it is economical for
their use. For some it will not be ; for many others who com-
mand city prices for their produce, and are obliged to transport
all their manure some miles, it can hardly fail to be highly, val-
uable. Its modest price is certainly in its favor, and I am cred-
ibly informed that it is in good repute among those who have
used it.
The Lodi Go's, Poudrctte can not be recommended. The or-
ganic matter of the East Hartford Poudrctte is a fermented peat
or muck, is highl}^ divided and absorbent of moisture and am-
monia. The Lodi poudrctte contains nearly as much organic
matter, l)ut it mostly consists of sticks and the dust of hard coal.
In fact all manner of city refuse, old nails, apple-seeds, &c., &c.,
are found in it. It is coarse and lumpy in texture. Its selling
46
price is $1.50 per bbl. of about 200 lbs. So long as the farmer
can procure 400 lbs. of good stable manure for $1.50, so long it
is cheaper than this pouclrette.
In this connection the question occurs — can not the night soil
of cities be profitably secured for agricultural purposes without
losing any of its original value. Undoubtedly it can be, and it
is a subject worthy of the most careful consideration of the par-
ties concerned in such an undertaking, viz : those on whose pre-
mises it is inevitably produced, those who may find profitable
employment in making it portable, and finally, those who are
in perpetual need of just such a material for increasing the yield
of their farms.
Xeshit has estimated the total amount of dry matter annually
excreted by an adult, well but not highly fed, at 90 lbs., con-
taining 16.85 lbs. of ammonia, and 2.75 of phosphoric acid, the
former at 14 cents per lb.=$2.36 ; the latter at 4^ cts. = 12 cts.
Both amount to $2.48. If this estimate be correct, a city of
80,000 inhabitants, like ISTew Haven, furnishes yearly $75,000
worth of the most valuable fertilizing material, which now is not
only lost, but is a nuisance. Could a little prejudice be overcome,
undoubtedly the whole of this might be economized in a most
profitable manner. The raw material, if collected fresh, is rich
enough to warrant the outlay of considerable money in prepar-
ing it for use.
deburg's bone meal.
This substance sent me by Messrs. Backus & Barstow, of
Norwich, had the appearance of hone-ash or the residue of burnt
bones, and proved to be such on analysis.
Water, ------- 8.04
Organic and volatile matters, mostly charcoal, - 2.07
Sand and insoluble matters, - - - -11.19
Lime, ------ 42.17
Phosphoric acid, . - . - 34.00 — 35.42
Carbonic ".---- 1.23
Magnesia, sulphuric acid, with undetermined matters, 4.88
100.00
47
Bone Meal is a term tliat lias long been in use in England, to
signify finely ground bones, and it is a departure from good
usage to apply the name to bone-ash. This is a good phosphatic
fertiHzcr, and comes very near in composition to the average
samples of Columbian guano. The calculated value is $31.75.
IVORY DUST AND TURNINGS.
The examination of these substances from the comb factory
at Meriden, has led to the following analytical results :
Dust. Turnings.
Water 11.20 10.92
Organic matter, . _ . . 33.70 37.9-1
Lime, ----- 27.09 25.80
Phosphoric acid, . . - - 23.22 22.11
Ammonia yielded by organic matter, - (3.00 O.-KJ
The above is near] y the composition of the bones of domestic
animals, and it is obvious that this material must be a valuable
fertilizer, though the quantity that can be procured is small.
BEEF SCRAPS.
This material is a residue of the soap-boiling processes. It
occurs in the form of cakes, which having been very strongly
pressed, are so hard as to withstand any attempts at pulveriza-
tion. In composition it is almost pure muscular fibre or cellular
tissue. It contains 97.4:2 per cent, of organic matter, and yields
13 per cent, of ammonia on decay. It must be exceedingly val-
uable to manufacturers as a source of ammonia, but from its
hardness can not be directly useful, except it is reduced by some
solvent, or is softened by soaking with water. I understand it
now commands a good price from the manufacturers of super-
phosphates.
ON THE COMPOSITION AND AGRICULTURAL VALUE OF COTTON-
SEED CAKE.
Eecently a process has been patented for removing the hulls
from cotton-seed, so that this material may be expressed for its
oil. This new industrj^ is now prosecuted in Providence, R. I.,
and so enormous are the quantities of cotton-seed that hitherto
have been nearly useless refuse, which may thus be profitably
48
economized, that this manufacture will doubtless be a permanent
and extended one. The important agricultural uses to which
the cake remaining after the expresssion of flax, rape and other
oily seeds, have been applied, makes it important to study what
are the properties of the cotton-seed cake. I have examined
specimens from the Providence mills, and find that its composi-
tion is not inferior to that of the best flax-seed cake, and in some
points its agricultural value surpasses that of any other kind of
oil-cake of which I have knowledge ; as will appear from the
following statement of its composition compared with that of
linseed cake.
W^ater,
Oil,
Albuniiiioiis bodies,
Mucilaginous and saccharine matters,
Filjre, /.
Ash,
Nitrotren,
Phospliorie acid in as!i,
Sand,
I-
II.
III. 1
IV.
V.
C.S2
11.19
9.23
16.94
16.47
9.08 1
12.96
44.41
48.82
25.16
28.28
10.69
12.74
}
34.22
40.11
1].76
[
48.93
9.00
27.16
7.80
8.9G
5.G4
6.21
5.04
100.00
100.00!
100.00
100.00
7.05
1.75
3.95
4.47
2.36
2.45
.94
1.32
No. I. is the cake from Providence.
No. II. gives some of the results of an analysis made by Dr.
C. T. Jiickson, on cake prepared by himself from hulled cotton-
seed. (Patent Office Report for 1855, agricultural part.)
No. III., analysis of Di\ Anderson on cotton-cake, made at
Edinburgh, Scotland.
No. IV., average composition of eight samples of American
linseed cake. (Journal of Ilighland and Ag. Soc. of Scotland,
Jul}^, 1855, p. 51.)
No. v.. Meadow Ilay, Saxony, Dr. Wolff.
The two points of interest before us are, tlie mdritive and mo-
nurial value of this cake. With reference to both, chemistry
and practical results agree in their conclusions. The great value
of linseed cake, as an adjunct to hay for fat cattle and milch
cows, has long been recognized ; and is undeniably traceable in
the main, to three ingredients of the seeds of the oil-yielding
49
2:)lants. The value of food depends upon tlie quanlity of mat-
ters it contains wliicli ma}' be appropriated by the animal which
consumes the food. Now, it is proved that the fat of animals is
derivable from the skirch^ gum and sugar ^ and more directly and
easily from the oil of the food. These four substances, are, then,
the fai-formcrs. The muscles, nerves and tendons of animals,
the libriue of their blood, and the curd of their milk, are almost
identical in composition, and strongly similar in many of their
properties, with matter's found in all vegetables, but chiefly in
such as form the most concentrated food. These Z^W./- (and mus-
cle-) formers are characterized by containing about 15-| per cent,
of nitrogen; and hence are called n'drogenous suhstaurcs. Since
albumin (white of egg) is the type of these bodies, they are also
often designated as the alhuminous bodies.
The bony frame-work of the animal owes its solidity to p^ios-
2)hate of lime, and this substance must be furnished by the food.
A perfect food must supply the animal with these three classes
of bodies, and in proper proportions. What proportions are the
proper ones, we have at present no means of knowing with ac-
curacy. The ordinary kinds of food for cattle, contain a large
quantity of vegetable fibre or woody matter, which is more or
less indigestible, but which is indispensable to the welfare of the
herbivorous animals, as their digestive organs are adapted to a
bulky and rough food. "(See analysis Y.) The addition of a
small quantity of a food rich in oil and albuminous substances,
to the ordinary kinds of feed, has been found highly advanta-
geous in practice. Neither hay alone, nor concentrated food
alone, gives the best results. A certain combination of the two
presents the most advantages.
For fattening animals, and for increasing the yield and quality
of milk, linseed cake has long been held in high estimation.
This is to be expected from its composition. The muscle of
flesh and the curd of milk are increased in quantity, because the
albuminous substances of the linseed constitute an abundant and
ready source of them ; the fat of the animal and the butter of
the milk are ^increased by the presence in the food of so much
oil and mucilaginous matters.
A year or two since, Mr. M'Lagan of Scotland, reported in the
50
Journal of the Highland Society, some trials on the value, as
food, of linseed cake, cotton-seed cake, and bean meal. Analy-
sis III. represents the composition of the cotton cake ; IV. that
of the linseed cake. The bean meal has 25 per cent, of albumi-
nous matters, but 1^ per cent of oil, and correspondingly more
of the bodies that have the same nutrient function as the muci-
laginous and saccharine matters. Six animals of nearly equal
size and quality were fed during three months in Winter, with
all the turnips and straw they would eat, and in addition, two of
them received daily, four pounds of linseed cake, two, four
pounds of cotton-seed cake, and two, four pounds of bean meal.
The animals thrived as well on the cotton-seed cake as on the
other kinds of food — as shown by their appearance, and by
their weight when slaughtered.
When linseed cake is fed in too large quantity it purges the
animal. The quality of beef is excellent when the daily dose
of oil-cake does not exceed six pounds for an animal of 700
pounds. Cases are on record when more than this quantity has
spoiled the beef, giving it a taste lilce tallow.
Prol)ably like results would follow excessive feeding with cot-
ton-seed cake. In the best cotton districts of India, the cotton-
seed bears a high value as food for fat cattle. I know of no ex-
periments with it on milch cows, but it is to be exjjected that
here also it will have the same effects as linseed cake.
A Bavarian farmer has recently announced that heifers fed
for three months before calving with a little linseed cake in ad-
dition to their other fodder, acquire a larger development of the
milk vessels, and yield more milk afterward, than similar ani-
mals fed as usual. If this be a fact, cotton-seed cake must have
an equally good effect.
Some of those who have used cotton-seed cake have found
difficulty in inducing cattle to cat it. By giving it at first in
small doses, mixed with other palatable food, they soon learn to
eat it with relish.
On comparing the analyses II. and I., with the average com-
position of linseed cake, IV., it will be seen that tlic cotton-seed
cake is much richer in oil and albuminous matters than the lin-
seed cake. A correspondingly less quantity will therefore be
51
required. Three pounds of this cotton-seed cake are equivalent
to four of linseed cake of average qualit}^.
The value of the article in question as a manure, is obviously
very considerable. The dung of cattle, etc., fed upon it, will be
greatly richer both in nitrogen and phosphates, than that of an-
imals fed on hay alone. Where stock is kept, probably the best
manner of using this cake as a fertilizer, is to feed it to the cat-
tle, and carefully apply the manure they furnish. In this wa\-,
whatever is not economized as fat or flesh, will be available as
manure.
In England and on the continent of Europe, linseed-and rape-
Cake have been used directly as a dressing for the soil, and with
results fully equal to what is indicated by their composition.
These kinds of cake decompose readily, and their effect is usu-
ally finished in one season. 500 or 600 pounds per acre is con-
sidered a good application ; more is liable to be injurious. It is
fomid that when applied with the seed, these kinds of cake pre-
vent germination to a considerable degree ; but if applied a week
or so previous to sowing, this detriment is not encountered.
The cotton-seed is often employed in the Southern States, with
good effects, as a manure for Indian corn, &c. I do not know
whether like rape and linseed cake, it destroys the seed. For
manuring purposes it is about one-third richer than linseed cake.
Its effects are mostly due to the nitrogen it contains, and there-
fore are similar to those of guano. It is best used in conjunc-
tion with other fertilizers. I should judge that a mixture of
400 pounds of this cotton-seed cake with 50 bushels of leached
wood-ashes per acre, would make an excellent application for
most crops. It is highly important that the cake be uniformlv
distributed, and thoroughly intermixed with the soil.
This cotton-seed cake is doubtless an excellent material for
composts, owing to its ready decomposaljility.
Its commercial value as a manure, if calculated from the prices
adopted in this Eeport, is $21.60. The market price is $25.00.
Therefore, next to Peruvian guano, this is a substance which, if
its composition proves uniform, is most ncarl}" worth wliat it
costs.
Note. In making the analvses which are included in this
4
52
Eeport, I liave been greatly assisted by tlie following gentlemen,
students in the Yale Analytical Laboratory, viz : Messrs. A. D.
"VVillson, A. P. Eockwell, M. Watson, and G. F. Barker. I am
especially indebted also to my skillful professional assistants,
Messrs. Henry M. Seely and Edward H. Twining, w^lio have
each made numerous analyses.
PEAT AND MUCK — PRELIMINAEY NOTICE.
The investigation of the Peats and Mucks sent in to me from
various parts of the State, last summer, has been prosecuted as
far as has been possible. Seventeen sj^ecimens have been sub-
mitted to analysis, and in them have been made the following
determinations, viz :
Water.
Organic matter.
Ash.
Portion soluble in w^ater.
" insoluble in water.
" soluble in carbonate of soda.
" insoluble in " " "
Total nitrogen or potential ammonia.
In two cases, complete analyses of the ash have been carried
out. In all of them, the ash has been more or less analj^zed,
where the quantity of it has allowed.
This labor has occupied my able assistant, Edward 11. Twu-
ning, nearly the whole of four months. Some of the analytical
processes consumed a great deal of time, and the consequence
is, that now, when I must present my rej^ort, many interesting
points remain uninvestigated. I therefore prefer not to enter
into the details of the results already obtained, but to reserve
this most important subject for further and more extended stud-
ies, if such be the pleasure of the Society. The analytical re-
sults as far as finished, serve to indicate the direction in w^hich
new researches may be midertaken with most promise of use-
fulness.
I may mention in brief, some of the more important facts that
have transpired in this research. Very great differences exist
between different specimens. Some fire but sliglitly advanced
in the peaty decomposition, and yield but a few per cent, of
matter solul^le in alkalies ; others consist almost entirely of sol-
uble peaty substance, the so-called humic, ulmic and geic acids.
x\n important question, yet very undecided, so far as my knowl-
edo-e extends, is, how do these differences stand connected with
the readiness of decomposition which is essential to the fertili-
zing applications of peat? This is a branch of inquiry that
deserves to be studied experimentally, both in the laboratory
and on the farm. Hereafter I shall attempt to offer some sug-
gestions for a practical study of this subject, which may lead
to a better knowledge of the best methods of composting, c^c.
Some of the peats examined, have dissolved in water to the ex-
tent of only three-fourths of a per cent. Others have yielded
to water, five, six, and one as much as twelve per cent., viz :
five per cent, of mineral, and seven per cent, of vegetable mat-
ter. The precise nature of the matters thus dissolved has not
been accurately studied in any one case. It is shown, however,
that the character of the portion soluble in water varies very
widely ; for example, in the specimen yielding twelve per cent.,
it is chiefly compounds of the peaty acids with oxyd of iron,
that are extracted by water. In other cases much lime and little
iron is dissolved. These particulars deserve the most minute
study, because the matters soluble in water are those which are
immediately serviceable to vegetation. Very likely some of
these peats may be at first injurious from the quantities of solu-
ble salts of iron they contain.
That part of the investigation relating to the estimation of
nitrogen, has furnished the most interesting results. No speci-
men of peat that I have examined, though all have been merely
air-dried, and contain from ten to thirty per cent, of water, lias
yielded less than one per cent, of potential ammonia, while the
average yield is two per cent., and one specimen gave three and
one-half per cent., which is one-fifth as much as is found in the
best Peruvian guano.
Mr. Daniel Buck, of Poquonock, has long employed peat as
fuel, and some time ago brought to the notice of Messrs. Dyer
and' Weld the flict that the peat he employs, exhales a strong
64
odor of ammonia wlien burning. This observation lias been
made in my laboratory with other samples.
In the two specimens of peat-ashes, one furnished by Mr.
Buck, and coming from the peat just mentioned, the other by
Mr. Stanwood, of Colebrook, were found, besides large quanti-
ties of carbonate of lime, considerable sulphate of lime and
magnesia, also nearly one per cent, of phosphoric acid and the
same amount of alkalies.
The gentlemen who have furnished these j^eats, namely:
Messrs. T. S. Gold, Nathan Hart, Titus L. Hart of West Corn-
wall, Lewis M. Norton of Goshen, Messrs. Pond and Miles of
Milford, Messrs. Eussell Peck of Berlin, B. F. Northrop of Gris-
wold, J. H. Stanwood of Colebrook, S, Loveland of North
Granlj}', Daniel Buck of Poquonock, Adams "White, Philip
Scarborough, Perrin Scarborough, and the Messrs. Dyer of
Brooklyn, have communicated to me a large amount of valuable
imformation respecting the character and value of the deposits,
which would be most appropriately embodied in a future report,
should I be permitted to complete this investigation.
Practical men have already abundantly proved that many
peats are of exceeding agricultural value. This is no discovery
of mine, or of those who have already subjected these substan-
ces to a chemical examination. Mr. Daniel Buck of Poquonock,
has used his peat without any preparation, as a top-dressing on
grass, and has experienced the most decided results from its use
in this simple manner. He estimates his raw peat as equal to
cow-dung in fertilizing value.
What may be expected from a thorough chemical investiga-
tion of these deposits is this : We shall be able to decide which
are valuable, and which are indifferent for fertilizing purposes.
We shall excite throughout the State and the whole country, in
fact, an interest in these deposits, that will lead to their extended
and systematic use. We shall thus acquire a full practical
knowledge of their merits, and of the best methods for convert-
ing them into grain and flesh and milk.
Unquestionably, the greatest service we can render to our
farming interests is to develop our internal resources. The im-
portation of foreign fertilizers is enriching foreign merchants,
55
and withdrawing casli from tlie pockets of our fermers. Their
use is extremely hable to run to excess, and makes our agricul-
ture unsteady and improvident. We need, not only to live and
make money from our soils, but to constantl}^ improve the soil,
and thus extend our agricultural capital. The enlightened econ-
omy of the enormous masses of muck and peat which Connecti-
cut contains, which probably exceed in extent those of an}- other
State, can not fail to exercise the most beneficent influence on
our material prosperity. We shall thus at once fertilize those
fields that are already arable, and reclaim from waste a large
area of land that is now all but useless.
I doubt not that the peat beds of our State are destined to be
of immense value for other than merely agricultural purposes.
As, fuel, they have already been employed to some extent. In
Europe a vast deal of ingenuity has been bestowed upon the
means of preparing peat-fuel, so as to adapt it to transportation
and advantageous use. In Bristol of this State, the Copper
Company have for some time employed a furnace in connection
with their steam engine, which receives the jjcat as it comes drip-
ping wet from the swamp, and consumes it with the greatest.
economy, even the water it contains being made to contribute
to its heating effect.
In Germany, a method has been invented for converting the
porous, bulky, and friable peat, into dense hard cakes, or bricks,
which contain little of the coarse impurities of the peat, and may
be transported without loss or pulverization, and burn with a
great degree of freedom. All this is accomplished without any
pressure, by simply diffusing the peat in water, allowing the
latter to settle, and drying the deposit.
Again, in Ireland and Germany, peat is consumed in large
quantities in an entirely new industry, which has originated and
grown to a good deal of vigor within the last five to six years.
The peat is distilled, either over a free fire, or by over-heated
steam, and a large number of useful products are thus obtained,
quite analogous to those now prepared to some extent in this
country from bituminous coals.
As an example of the kind and quantity of these products,
the following statement may be adduced :
56
From a turf or peat excavated in Hanover, German}^, and
vrorked in the air- dry state, were obtained :
2 per cent, of a clear, colorless, light-turf-oil or pliotogene.
2 " " dark, heavy "
11 " " asphalt.
85 " " peat coal or coke.-
15 " " illuminating gas.
I " " paraffin.
4 " " kreosote.
40 " " water containing 1 — 3 per cent, ammonia.
These products are all susceptible of useful applications for
lourposes of illumination, lubrication, heating, preservation of
wood, manufacture of lamp-black, varnish, and even of per-
fumery.
If I should be authorized to continue my labors, I shall com-
municate to the Society a full account of all these various tech-
nical applications of peat, in so far as they promise to be of ser-
vice to the industrial interests of this State.
I have taken measures to provide myself with means of in-
formation on all these topics, as furnished by the scientific and
technical journals and publications of Great Britain, Germany
and France. I also wish to examine personally, the more im-
portant of our peat-beds, so as to bo able to compare their phys-
ical with their chemical characters, and thus to establish rules
by which practical men may be guided in the economy of the
different varieties.
57
APPENDIX. — Methods of Analysis.
Tlie general method of analysis for guanos, supcrpliosphates,
&c., whose commercial value lies almost exclusively in ammo-
nia and phosphoric acid, is as follows:
1. Of the well averaged and pulverized sample, a quantitj'-
of 2 grams is weighed off and dried at a temperature of 212 deg.
until it ceases to lose weight ; the loss is water. If loss of am-
monia is feared, a known quantity of oxalic acid is added before
drying.
2. The dried residue of 1, is gradually heated to low redness
in a porcelain cup, and maintained at such a heat, until all organic
matter is hurned off. The loss is organic and volatile matter.
Usually the substance is directly heated to redness without sep-
aratel}^ estimating the water.
3. The residue of 2, is pulverized if need be, and digested
for some time with moderately concentrated hydrochloric acid.
The diluted solution is fdtered off and washed, the residue
weighed as sand and insoluble matters.
4. The solution 8, is brought to the bulk of three or four
liquid ounces, mixed with rather more than its volume of strong
alcohol and enough sulphuric acid to unite with all the Ihne
which is thereby completely separated as sulphate. The liquid
is filtered off, the sulphate of lime is washed with dilute alcohol,
dried and weighed ; from it is calculated the amount of lime.
5. The solution •!, is evaporated until the alcohol is removed,
then with(3ut filtration, to it is added an excess of a liquid made
by dissolving in 2 quarts of water, 30 grams of sulphate of mag-
nesia, 41 grams of chlorid of ammonium, 37^ grams of tartaric
acid, and 40 grams of carbonate of ammonia, (sec W. Mayer, in
Liebig's Annalen, Vol. 101, p. 168,) and finally excess of am-
monia. After five to six hours, the precipitate of ammonia-
phosphate of magnesia, usually mixed with some brown organic
matters, is collected in a filter and washed three or four times
with ammonia water ; it is then dissolved from the filter by
d ilute hydrochloric acid, and again thrown down by ammonia,
58
after addition of a little tartaric acid. It is now pure, and is
finally waslied and weighed as usual for the estimation of phos-
phoric acid.
6. 1 gram of the manure is burned in the usual way, with
soda lime. The resulting ammonia is collected in 20 cubic cen-
timeters of a fifth-solution of oxalic acid, (12.6 grams of pure
oxalic acid to a liter of water,) and estimated by titrition with
a dilute potash solution.
7. The soluble phosphoric acid of a manure is estimated by
washing 2 grams of it with several ounces of water and treating
the solution as in 4 and 5.
8. To determine actual ammonia, one or two grams are mixed
in a flask, with a pint of water; a piece of caustic potash is
added, and three-fourths of the water slowly distilled oft' through
a Liebig's condenser into a standard oxalic acid. The ammonia
is then estimated by titrition.
In complete ash-analysis of manures, or in examining organic
bodies, e. g., cotton-seed cake, the usual and approved methods
are employed.
REPORT OF
PROFESSOR S. W. JOHNSON,
CHEMIST TO THE SOCIETY.
For 1858.
Henry A. Dyer, Corresponding Secretary of the Connecticut State
Agricultural Society.
Dear Sir : — j\Iy Second Annual Report is cliieflj occnpied witli the
results of the Investigation of Peat and Muck, begini at your instance
in 1857. In order to make my analyses and inquiries of the greatest
practical benefit to our farmers, I have prepared a systematic and brief,
though pretty complete account of tlie nature and uses of Peat and
Muck, in so far as they concern Agriculture, the careful study of which,
I hope, will enable any one to employ the abundant contents of our
swamps with economy and advantage.
I had intended to give here an account of the other technical applica-
tions of peat ; but since it appears that they are as yet very undeveloped
and not likely to be of much immediate importance in this country, I
have concluded to leave them unnoticed for the present.
The Commercial Fertilizers tliat I have examined, witli two excep-
tions have proved to he of good quality, wdiile some of them are new
and possess much interest.
SAMUEL W. JOHNSON,
New Haven, Ct., January 12, 1,859.
ESSAYS ON MANURES.
1858.
COA'TEITS,
FOR ESSAYS IN 1858.
I'AGE
Peat and Mrf'K. — Essay on their Naturk and Agriculttiral 17ses. 61
1. What is Peal? -------- CI
2. Coutlitions of its fdniiatioii, - - - - - <31
3. Different kinds, ..------ 62
4. Chemical composition, ---... G-i
a. Organic or combustible i)ai-t, ----- 6-t
?;. Mineral part — Ashes, ------ 66
r. Nitrogen or potential auuaonia, - - - - - 66
5. Ciiaracters tluit adapt Peat for agricultural use, - . - gT
A. Physical or amending characters, - - - - - 67
I. Alisorbent power for water, as liquid and vapor, - - 68
II. '■ '• '■ ammonia, - - - - - (>!)
III. Influence in modifying decay, - - - - - 11
IV. Influence in disintegrating tlie soil, - - - - 12
Y. Influence on the temperature of soils. - - - 13
B. Fertilizing ciiaracters, ------ 74
I. Fertilizing eflects of the organic matters, including nitrogvn, 74
1st. Organic matters as direct food to plants, - - - 74
2d. Organic matters as indirect food to plants, - - 75
3d. Peculiarities in tiie decay of Peat, - - - - 77
II. Fertihzing effects of tlis aslies of Peat. . - - 78
III. Comparison of Peat with stable manure, - - - 80
6. Characters of Peat that are detrimental, or that need correction, - 82
1st. Possible bad effects on heavy soils, - - - - 82
2d. Noxious ingredients, ------ 83
a. Vitriol Peats, ------- 83
h. Acidity, ------- 84
c. Resinous matters, ------- 85
3d. Deficient ingredients, . - . - - 85
7. Preparation of Peat for agricultural us", - - - - 85
a. Excavation, ------- 85
&. Exposure, or seasoning, - - - - - 86
r. Composting with staljle nuiuure, - - - - 87
" night soil, ----- 89
" " guano, ----- 89
" •' fish, and other animal matters, - - 90
" " potash-lye and soda-ash, - - - 91
" " wood-ashes, marl, lime, salt and lime mixture, &c., 91
8. Plan followed in the analysis of Peat, - - - - 95
Note. — Dr. R. A. Fisher's description of the process of analysis, - 97
9. The value of analyses and of practical information, - - 97
Circular of incjuiry, ...... 99
11. CONTENTS.
Page
10. Results of analyses, and answers to circular: —
No. 1, from Lewis M. Norton, Goshen, Ct. - - 101
No. 2, " " " " "... 101
No. 3, " " " " " - - 102
No. 4, " Messrs. Pond & Miles, Milford, '• - - - 10-1
No. 5, " "- " a .. . . ;^05
No. G, " Samuel Camp, PlainviUe, "... lOG
No. 7, " Russell U. Peck, Berlin '• - - 108
No. 8, " Rev. B. F. Northrop, Griswold, ■• . . - no
No. 9, " John H. Stanwood, Colebrook, " - - 112
No. 10, " N. Hart, Jr., West Cornwall, " . . . 114
No. 11, " A. L. Loveland, North Granby, ■• - - 116
No. 12, " Daniel Buck, Jr., Poquonock, " - - - 118
No. 13, " " " '■ - - 118
No. 14. " Philip Scarborough, Brookljm, " - - - 120
No. 15. " Adams white, a u . . ^22
No. 16. " Paris Dyer, " "... 123
No. 11. " Perrin Scarborough, '; ^- . . i24
No. 18. " Geo K. Virgin, Collinsville, " - - - 126
No. 19. " " " •• - - 126
No. 20. '• •• '• "... 12-
No. 21. " Solomon Mead, New Haven, '■ - - 129
No. 22. " Edwin Hoyt, Now Canaan, " - - - 130
No. 23. " " " " - - 131
No. 24. " '• ■' "... 132
No. 25. " A. M. Haling, Rockville, '• - - 137
No. 26. " " " "... 137
No. 27. " " " " - - 139
No. 28. " Albert Day, Brooklyn, •■ . . . 141
No. 29. " Chauncey Goodyear, N. Haven, " - - 144
No. 30. " Rev. Wm. Chft, Stoningtou, "... 145
No. 31. " Henry Keeler, South Salem, N. Y. - - 148
No. 32. " John Adams, Salisbury, Ct. - - - 149
No. 33. Appendix — Salt marsh mud from Rev. "Wm. Clift, Stoningtou, 152
No. 34. SheU marl from John Adams, Salisbury, Ct., - - 153
No. 35. Marsh mud from Solomon Mead, New Haven, Ct., - 153
1 1 . Tabulated Analyses, - - - - - - - 1 5o
Commercial FERTiui^ERS — Scale of Prices. - - - 159
Fish manure, Quinnipiac Company's, - - - - 159
Green-sand marl, of New Jersey, - - - - 161
"Animalizcd phosphate of lime," .... 1(35
Guanos. — Peruvian guano, - - - - - 166
Elide guano, - - - - - - 167
Superphosphates of hme. — Pike&Co's: Coe & Go's: Greene & Preston's: Coe'.s, 168
Castor pummace, - - - - - - 169
Bone clust and bone meal, - - - • - 172
PEAT AND MUCK.
ESSAY ON THEIR NATURE AND AGRICULTURAL USES.
1. WliatisPeut?
By the general term Peat we understand the vegetable vsoil of
salt-marshes, beaver-meadows, bogs and swamps.
It consists of vegetable matters resulting from the decay of
many generations of aquatic or marsh plants, as mosses, sedges,
coarse grasses, and a great variety of shrubby plants, mixed with
more or less mineral substances, partly derived from these plants,
and partly washed in from the surrounding lands.
2. The conditions under ichich Peat is formed.
The production of Peat from fallen and decaying plants, de-
pends upon the presence of so much water as to cover or satu-
rate the vegetable matters, and thereby hinder the full access of
air. Saturation with water also has the effect to maintain the
decaying matters at a low temperature, and by these two causes
in combination, the process of decay is made to proceed with
great slowness, and the final products of such slow decay, are
compounds that themselves resist decay, and hence they accu-
mulate.
In New England there appears to be nothing like the exten-
sive moors that abound in Ireland, Scotland, the north of Eng-
land, North German}^, Holland, and the elevated plains of
Bavaria, which are mostly level or gently sloping tracts of coun-
try covered with peat or turf to a depth often of 20 feet. In this
country it is only in low places, where streams become obstructed
and form swamps, or in bays and inlets on salt water, where the
ebb and flow of the tide keeps the soil constantly wet, that our
peat-beds occur.
62
In the countries above named the weather is more nniform
than here, especially are the summers cooler, and rain falls are
more frequent. Such is the greater humidity of the atmosphere
that some species of mosses, — the so-called sphagnums^ — which
have a wonderful avidity for moisture, (hence used for packing
plants which require to be kept moist on journeys,) are able to
keep fresh and in growth during the entire summer. These
mosses decay below and throw out new vegetation above, and
thus produce a bog wherever the earth is springy. It is in this
way that in those countries, the moors and peat-bogs actually
grow, increasing in depth and area, from j^ear to year, and raise
themselves above the level of the surrounding country.
There the reclamation of a moor is usually an expensive ope-
ration, for which not only much draining, but actual cutting out
and Ijurning of the compact peat is necessary.
The warmth of our summers and the dryness of our atmos-
phere prevent the accumulation of peat above the highest level
of the standino- water of our marshes, and so soon as the marshes
are well drained, the peat ceases to form, and in most cases the
Bwamp may be easily converted into good meadow land.
Springy hill-sides, which in cooler, moister climates would be-
come moors, here dry up in summer to such an extent that no
peat can be formed ujDon them.
3. Tlie different kinds of Peat.
Very great differences in the characters of the deposits in our
peat beds are observable. These differences are partly of color,
some peats being gray, others red, others again black, the
majority when dry possess a brown-red or snufif color. They also
vary remarkably in weight and consistency. Some are compact,
destitute of fibres or other traces of the vegetation from which
they have been derived, and on drying shrink greatly and yield
tough dense masses which burn readily, and are emploj^ed as
fuel. Others again are light and porous, and remain so on dry-
ing ; these contain much intermixed vegetable matter that is but
little advanced in the peaty decomposition. Some peats are
almost entirely free from mineral matters, and on burning leave
but a few per cent, of ash, others contain considerable quantities
63
of lime or iron, in chemical combination, or of sand and clay
tliat have been washed in from the hills adjoining the swamps.
The peat of some swamps is mostly derived from mosses, that
of others from grasses, some contain much decayed wood and
leaves, others again are free from these.
In the same swamp we usually observe more or less of all
these differences. We find the surface peat is light and full of
partly decayed vegetation, while below the deposits are more
compact. We commonly can trace distinct strata or layers of
peat, which are often very unlike each other in appearance and
quality, and in some cases the light and compact layers alter-
nate so that the former are found below the latter.
The light and porous kinds of peat appear in general to be
formed in shallow swamps or on the surfice of bogs, where there
is considerable access of air to the decaying matters, while the
compactor peats are found at a depth, and seem to have been
formed beneath the low-water mark, in more complete exclusion
of the atmosphere.
The nature of the vegetation that flourishes in a bog, no doubt
has some effect on the character of the peat. The peats chiefly
derived from mosses that have grown in the full sunlight, have
a red color, especially in their u|iper layers, while those produced
principally from grasses are often grayish in appearance, or are
full of silvery fibres — the skeletons of the blades of grasses and
sedges.
The accidental admixtures of soil often greatly affect the ap-
pearance and value of a peat, but on the whole it would appear
that its quality is most influenced by the nature and degree of
decomposition it has been subjected to.
The term much is chiefly used among us to designate what is
more correctly called peat. In proper usage, muck is a general
term for manure of any sort, and if applied to peat should be
qualified as swamp-muck.
Some intelligent farmers call the surfice layers of their swamps,
which are loose and light in texture, svrimp-miiclc^ and to the
bottom layers, which are more compact and often serviceable as
fuel, they apply the term peat. This distinction is not very
definite, but is convenient in many cases, and will be employed
64
in tliis Report as far as practicable ; although according to usage
it is often necessary to use the words peat and muck synony-
mously,
4. Tlie Chemical Co'inposiiion of Peat.
Pure peat is derived from the decay of woody-fibre, which
constitutes the organic basis of nearly all plants, and is essen-
tially the same thing whether found in true wood or in grasses
and mosses.
Like the vegetation from which it is formed, it is for the most
part combustible, and if free from accidental admixtures of earthy
matters, leaves but a few per cent, of ash when burned.
(a) The organic or comhusiihle 2Mrt of peat varies exceedingly
in composition. It is in fact an indefinite mixture of several
or perhaps of many bodies whose precise nature is little known.
These bodies have received the collective names liurnus and
geine. In order to understand the general characters of Ilumus,
as we shall designate the organic matters of peat, it is necessary
to remind ourselves of the nature of the processes of decay, by
which it is produced.
In a cliemical sense, decay is strongly similar to combustion
or burning. It is in fact a burning at low temperatures, a com-
bustion going on so slowly that there is no accumulation of heat,
and no exhil^ition of light. To go back one step further, both
these processes are cases of oxydation. A piece of wood whether
consumed in the fire, or allowed to decay in the soil, is finally
brought to the same result. Its organic portion is dissipated in
the form of invisible gases, its mineral matters remain behind
as ashes or earth. It is the vital principle of the atmosphere —
oxygen gas, which is consumed in these changes, and which if it
be supplied in sufficient quantity, burns, i. e., unites with the
carbon and the hydrogen of the wood, and converts them into
carbonic acid and water.
When wood instead of being burned with full access of air is
heated in close vessels or in coal-pits, with imperfect supply of
oxygen, then its most easily combustible parts — those portions
which give flame — are burnt off, and charcoal is left — a substance
that burns without flame.
65
When -wood or vegetable matters generally, instead of being
permitted to moulder away in the free atmospliere, with just
enough moisture and suflicient warmth to promote complete
decay, are kept under water and thus nearly shut oil" from the
action of oxygen,* a similar burning out of the more combusti-
ble (oxydable) matters of the wood takes place, and peat results,
a substance, which like charcoal, burns without or with little
flame, is highly indestructible, and is richer in carbon than the
wood from which it was formed.
In the formation of peat tliis removal of the more combustible
parts of the wood cannot go on nearly to the degree it does in
the preparation of charcoal, on account of the lower tempera-
ture, and the far smaller sup})ly of air. "With the changes in
temperature, and with the variable access of air, are connected
the differences in the nature and relative quantity of the ingre-
dients of peat. The larger share of the oi'gauic matters that
may be separated from peat, possesses acid charactei's.
If peat be agitated, or better, boiled a short time with water, it
is partly dissolved. The quantity taken up by water varies from
1 to 17 per cent., and of this a variable portion is organic acids.
The extract or solution in water has generally an amber or pale
browai color, like the water of swamps or of forest streams, and
the acids it contains are two in number, and have received the
names crenic and apocrenic acids.
In the water extract these acids are in general pailly uncom-
bined and partly united to various bases, as lime, magnesia, oxyd
of iron and alumina.
The great mass of the peat remaining after the treatment with
"water, consists of one or several acids which are soluljle in solu-
tions of an alkali, and may thus be removed from tlie remaining
ingredients. To exhibit these acids, the so-called linmic acids, —
we boil the peat with a solution of carbonate of soda ; a dark
brov\'n liquid is shortly oljtained which contains the humic acids
united with soda.
If now, any strong acid as sulphuric acid, is added in excess
to the solution of humate of soda, the soda is taken by the sul-
* Not entirely, for -^'ater dissolves a certain quantity of oxygen wliich suj^ports
the respiration of fishes.
66
phuric acid, and the linmic acids are separated, and subside as a
black or brown sediment.
In most peats, after tlie extraction witli water and carbonate
of soda, there still remains a black residue which is insoluble in
alkalies and has been termed humine. This substance is usually
mixed with more or less undecomposed vegetable matter or fibre,
from which we know no means of separating it. It is not an
acid, else it would combine with alkalies. Its composition, how-
ever, does not differ much from that of the humic acids just men-
tioned.
Besides the bodies above named, a small amount of resinous
matters exists in some, perhaps in all peats ; occasionally too, a
bituminous or pitchy matter has been found in them, l3ut these
substances are doubtless of no agricultural significance whatever.
Such is a concise sketch of the organic or combustible ingre-
dients of peat, and it is of sufficient fullness and accuracy for our
present purpose.*
(/;) The onineral ixtrt of i^ieat loliicli remains as ashes when the
organic matters are burned away is variable in quantity and
composition. Usually a quantity of sand or soil is found in it,
and not unfrequently constitutes its larger portion. Some peats
leave on burning much carbonate of lime, the ash of others
again is mostly oxyd of iron ; silicic, sulphuric and phosphoric
acids, magnesia, potash, soda, alumina and chlorine, also occur
in small quantities in the ash of all peats.
In some rare instances peats are found which are so impreg-
nated with soluble sulphates of iron and alumina as to yield
these salts to water in large quantity, and sulphate of iron (green
vitriol,) has actually been manufactured from such peats, which
have in consequence been characterized' as vitriol peats.
(c) The nitrogen or jyotential ammonia of peats is an important
ingredient, which is never absent, though its quantity varies from
1 to 5 x>er cent.
* The vnrieties of humic and iilmic acids, of humine and uhnine, described by
Mulder and Herrmann are not noticed here, for the reasons that these chemists dis-
agree as to tlieir properties and existence, and they are of no agricultural impor-
tance.
67
5. After this general statement of the composition of peat,
we may proceed to notice : llie characters that adapt it for agri-
cultural uses.
These characters are conveniently discussed under two heads,
viz:
(^4.) Those which render it useful in improving the texture
and other physical characters of the soil, and indirectly contri-
bute to the nourishment of crops, — characters which constitute
it an amendment to use the language of French agricultural
writers ; and,
{B.) Those which make it a direct fertilizer.
{A.) Considered as an amendment, the value of peat depends
upon
I. Its remarJcable power of absorbing and retaining ivcder, both
as a liquid and as vapor :
II. Its power of absorbing ammonia:
III. Its action in modifying the decay of organic {animal and
vegetable) bodies :
IV. Its effect in j^^^omoting the disintegration and solution of
mineral matters, {the stony matters of the soil): and
V. Its influence on the temperature of the soil.
The agricultural importance of these properties of peat is best
illustrated by considering the faults of a certain class of soils.
Throughout Connecticut are found abundant examples of
light, leachy, hungry soils, which consist of coarse sand or fine
gravel ; are surface-dry in a few hours after the heaviest rains,
and in the summer drouths, are as dry as an ash-heap to a depth
of several or many feet.
These soils are easy to work, are ready for the plow early in
the spring, and if well manured give moderate crops in wet sea-
sons. In a dry summer, however, they yield poorly, and at the
best they require constant and very heavy manuring to keep
them in heart.
Crops fail on these soils from two causes, viz. : want of moisture
and want of food. Cultivated plants demand as an indispensa-
ble condition of their growth and perfection, to be kept within
certain limits of wetness. Buckwheat will flourish best on dry
soils, while cranberries and rice grow in swamps. The crops
68
that are most profitable to us, wheat, oats, etc., require a medium
degree of moisture, and in all cases it is desirable that the soil
be equally protected from excess of water and from drouth.
Soils must be thus situated either naturally, or as the result of
improvement, before any steadily good results can be obtained
in their cultivation.
In wet seasons these light soils are tolerably productive if well
manured. It is then plain that if we could add anything to them
which would retain the moisture of dews and rains in spite of
the summer-heats, our crops would be uniformly fair, provided
the supply of manure be kept up.
But why is it that light soils need more manure than loamy
or heavy lands ? We answer — because, in the first place, the
rains which quickly descend through the open soil, wash doAvn
out of the reach of vegetation the soluble fertilizing matters, and
in the second place, from the porosity of the soil the air has too
great access, so that the vegetable and animal matters of manures
decay too rapidly, their volatile portions, ammonia and carbonic
acid, escape into the atmosphere, and are in measure lost to the
crops. From these combined causes we find that a heavy dress-
ing of well-rotted stable manure almost, if not quite entirely,
disappears from such soils in one season, so that another year
the field requires a renewed application ; while on loamy soils
the same amount of manure would have lasted several years,
and produced each year a better effect.
We want then to amend light soils by incorporating with
them something that prevents the rains from leaching through
them too rapidly, and, that at the same time, renders them less
open to the air, or absorbs and retains for the use of crops the
volatile products of the decay of manures.
Now for these purposes vegetable matter of some sort, is the
best and almost the only amendment that can be economically
employed. In many cases a good peat or muck is the best form
of this material, that lies at the farmer's command.
I. Its ahsorhent 2iOiver for liquid vxder is well known to every
farmer who has thrown it up in a pile to season for use. It holds
the water like a sponge, and after exposure for a whole summer
is still distinctly moist to the feel.
69
Its absorbent power for vapor of water is so great tliat more tlian
once it has happened in Germany, that barns or close sheds filled
with dried peat, such as is used for fuel, have been burst by the
swelling of the peat in damp weather, occasioned by the absorp-
tion of moisture from the air. This power is further shown by
the foct that when peat has been kept all summer long in a dry
room, thinly spread out to the air, and has become like dry snuff
to the feel, it still contains 10, 20, 30, and in some of the speci-
mens I have examined, even 40 per cent, of water. To dry a
peat thoroughly, it requires to be exposed for some time to the
temperature of boiling water. It is thus plain that no summer
heats can dry up a soil which has had a good dressing of this
materia], for on the one hand, it soaks up and holds the rains
that fall upon it, and on the other, it absorbs the vapor of water
out of the atmosphere whenever it is moist, as at night and in
cloudy weather.
II. Absorbent power for ammonia.
All soils that deserve to be called fertile, have the property of
absorbing and retaining ammonia and the volatile matters which
escape from fermenting manures, but light and coarse soils may
be deficient in this power. Here again in respect to its absorp-
tive power for ammonia, peat comes to our aid.
We may easily show by direct experiment that peat absorbs
and combines with ammonia.
I took for example a weighed quantity of the peat No. 29
from the New Haven Beaver Pond, the specimen furnished me
by Chauncey Goodyear Esq., and poured upon it a known quan-
tity of dilute solution of ammonia, and agitated the two together
for 48 hours. I then distilled off at a boiling heat the uuab-
sorbed ammonia and determined its quantity. This amount
subtracted from that of the ammonia originally employed, gave
the quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained by the peat at
the temperature of boiling water.
The peat retained ammonia to the amount of .95 of one per
cent.
I made another trial with carbonate of ammonia, adding ex-
cess of solution of this salt to a quantity of peat, and exposing
it to the heat of boiling water, until no smell of ammonia was
70
perceptible. The entire ammonia in the peat was then deter-
mined, and it was found that the dry peat which originally gave
2.4 per cent, of ammonia (potential,) now gave 3.7 per cent. The
absorbed quantity was thus 1.3 per cent.
This last experiment most nearly represents the true power of
absorption, because in fermenting manures ammonia mostly oc-
curs in the form of carbonate, and this is more largely retained
than free ammonia, on account of its power of decomposing the
humate of lime, forming with it carbonate of lime and humate
of ammonia.
The absorbent power of peat for ammonia is beautifully shown
b}^ the analyses of three specimens sent me by Edwin Hoyt, E§q.,
of New Canaan. The first of these (No. 22,) is the swamp muck
he employs. It contains in the dry state but .58 per cent, of
ammonia (potential.) The second sample (No. 23,) is the
same muck that has lain under the flooring of the horse stables,
and has been in this way partially saturated with urine. It con-
tains 1.15 per cent, of ammonia. The third sample is, finally,
the same muck composted with white-fish. It contains 1.31 per
cent, of ammonia.
The quantities of ammonia thus absorbed, both in the labora-
tory and iield experiments is small — from .7 to 1.3 per cent.
The absorption is without doubt almost entirely due to the or-
ganic matter of the peats, and in all the specimens on which
these trials were made, the per centage of inorganic matter is
large. The results therefore become a better expression of the
power of peat in general to absorb ammonia, if we reckon them
on the organic matter alone. Calculated in this way, the organic
matter of the Beaver Pond peat (which constitutes but 68 per
cent, of the dr}'- peat) absorbs 1.4 per cent, of free ammonia and
■1.9 per cent, of ammonia out of the carbonate of ammonia. In
the same manner we find that the organic matter of Hoyt's muck
has absorbed 2.35 per cent, of ammonia.
We observe that the peat which is, naturally, richest in am-
monia, absorbs less, relatively, than that which is poor in this
substance.
When we consider how small an ingredient of most manures
ammonia is, viz. : less than one per cent, in case of stable ma-
71
nure, and how little of it in the shape of guano for instance is
usually applied to crops — not more than 40 to 60 lbs. to the acre.
(The usual dressings with guano are from 250 to 400 lbs. per
acre, and ammonia averages but 15 per cent, of the guano) we at
once perceive that an absorptive power of two or even one per
cent, is adequate for every agricultural purpose.
III. The influence of peat in modifying the decay of organic
matters deserves notice.
Peat itself in its native bed or more properly the water which
impregnates it and is charged with its soluble principles has a
remarkable anti-septic or preservative power. Many instances
are on record of the bodies of animals being found in a quite
fresh and well-preserved state in peat bogs, but when peat is
removed from the swamp, and so far dried as to be convenient
for agricultural use, it does not appear to exert this preservative
quality to the same degree or even in the same kind.
Buried in a peat bog or immersed in peat water, animal mat-
ters are absolutely prevented from decay, or decay only with
extreme slowness ; but if covered with peat that is no longer
quite saturated with water, their decay is indeed checked in
rapidity, and the noisome odors evolved from putrifying animal
substances are not perceived, still decay does go on, and in warm
weather, no very long time is needed to complete the process.
The effect of peat in modifying decay is analogous to that of
charcoal, and is probably connected with its extreme porosity.
If a piece of flesh be exposed to the air during summer weather
it shortly putrifies and acquires an intolerable odor. If it be now
repeatedly rubbed with charcoal dust, and kept in it for some
time, the taint which only resides on the surface, may be com-
pletely removed, and the sweetness of the meat restored, or if
the fresh meat be surrounded with a layer of charcoal powder of
a certain thickness, it will pass the hottest weather without man-
ifesting the usual odor of putrefying bodies.
It does however waste away, and in time, completely disap-
pears. It decays, but does not putrefy, it exhales, not the dis-
gusting gases which reveal the neighborhood of carrion, but the
pungent odor of hartshorn. The gases which escape are the
n
same that would result if the flesh were perfectly burnt up in a
full supply of air, viz. : vapor of water, carbonic acid and am-
ononia.
If we attend carefully to the nature of decay thus modified
by charcoal dust, we find that it is complete, rapid but regular,
and unaccompanied by unhealthful or disagreeable exhalations.
Peat has all the effects of charcoal with this advantage, that it
permanently retains the ammonia formed in decay, which con-
trary to the generally received opinion charcoal does not.
From its absorptive power for water, it maintains a lower
temperature under the sun's heat than dry charcoal or a light
soil, and this circumstance protracts and regulates the process of
decay in a highly beneficial manner, so that if a muck-dressed
soil receive an application of stable manure, fish, or guano, — in
the first place, the ammonia and other volatile matters cannot be
formed so rapidly as in the undressed soil, because the soil is
moister and decay is thereby hindered, — and in the second place,
when formed they cannot escape from the soil, but are fixed in
it by the peculiar absorptive power of the vegetable acids of
muck.
These properties of peat will be again recurred to, when we
come to discuss its uses in composting,
IV. Peat 'proinoies the disintegration of the soil.
Every soil is a storehouse of food for crops ; but the stores it
contains are only partly available for immediate use. In fact,
by far the larger share is locked up, as it were, in insoluble com-
binations, and by a very slow and gradual change does it become
accessible to the plant. This change is chiefly brought about by
the united action of water and carbonic acid gas, or rather of
water holding this gas in solution. Nearly all the rocks and
minerals out of which fertile soils are formed, — which therefore
contain those inorganic matters that are essential to vegetable
growth, — ^though very slowly acted on by pure water, are decom-
posed and dissolved to a much greater extent, to an extent,
indeed, commensurate with the wants of vegetation, by water
charged with carbonic acid gas.
The only ahwK^ant source ofcarhonic acid in the soil, is decaying
vegetable matter.
73
Hungry, leachy soils, from tlieir deficiency of vegetable mat-
ter and of moisture do not adequately yield their own native re-
sources to the support of crops, because the conditions for con-
verting their fixed into floating capital are wanting. Such soils
dressed with peat or green manured, at once acquire the power
of retaining water, and keep that water overcharged with car-
bonic acid, thus not only the extraneous manures which the
farmer applies are fully economized ; but the soil' becomes more
productive from its own stores of fertility which now begin to
be unlocked and available.
It is probable, nay almost certain, that the acids of peat, ex-
ert a powerful decomposing, and ultimately solvent effect on the
minerals of the soil ; but on this point we have no precise in-
formation, and must therefore be content merely to allude to the
probability, which is sustained by the fact that the acids crenic,
apocrenic and humic, though often partly uncombined, are never
wholly so, but usually occur united in part to various bases,
viz. : lime, magnesia, ammonia, potash, alumina and oxyd of
iron.
V, Tlie influence of peat on the temperature of light soils dressed
with it may often be of considerable practical importance. A
light dry soil is subject to great variations of temperature, and
rapidly follows the changes of the atmosphere from cold to hot,
and from hot to cold. In the summer noon a sandy soil becomes
so warm as to be hardly endurable to the feel, and again it is on
such soils that the earliest frosts take effect. If a soil thus sub-
ject to extremes of temperature have a dressing of peat, it will
on the one hand not become so warm in the hot day, and on the
other hand it will not cool so rapidly, nor so much in the night ;
its temperature will be rendered more uniform, and on the whole
more conducive to the welfare of vegetation. This regulative
effect on temperature is partly due to the stores of water held by
peat. In a hot day this water is constantly evaporating, and
this, as all know is a cooling process. At night the peat absorbs
vapor of water from the air, and condenses it within its pores,
this condensation is again accomj)anied with the evolution of
heat.
74
It appears to be a general, thougli not invariable fact that
dark colored soils, other things being equal, are constantly the
warmest, or at any rate maintain the temperature most favorable
to vegetation. It has been repeatedly observed that on light-
colored soils plants mature more rapidly if the soil be thinly
covered with a coating of some black substance. Thus Lampa-
dius, Professor in the School of Mines at Friberg a town situat-
ed in a mountainous part of Saxony, found that he could ripen
melons, even in the coolest summers, by strewing a coating of
coal-dust an inch deep over the surface of the soil. In some of
the vineyards of the Rhine, the powder of a black slate is em-
ployed to hasten the ripening of the grape.
Girardin, an eminent French asfriculturist in a series of ex-
periments on the cultivation of potatoes found that the time of
their ripening varied eight to fourteen days, according to the
character of the soil. He found, on the 25tli of August, in a
very dark soil made so by the presence of much humus or de-
caying vegetable matter, twenty-six varieties ripe ; in sandy soil
but twenty, in clay nineteen, and in a white lime soil only
sixteen.
It cannot be doubted then, that the effect of dressing a light
sandy or gravelly soil with peat, or otherwise enriching it in veg-
etable matter, is to render it warmer, in the sense in which that
word is usually applied to soils. The upward range of the ther-
mometer may not be increased, but the uniform warmth so salu-
tary to our most valued crops is thereby secured.
(B.) The ingredients and qualities of peat which make it a
direct fertilizer next come under discussion. We shall notice:
I. The organic matters^ including nitrogen or ammonia.
II. The inorganic or minercd ingredients ; and
III. Institute a comparison between peat and stable manure.
In division I. we have to consider :
1st. The organic matters as direct food to plants.
Twenty years ago, when Clicmistry and Vegetable-Physiology
began to be applied to Agriculture, the opinion was firmly held
among scientific men, that the organic parts of humus — by
which we understand decayed vegetable matter, such as is found
to a greater or less extent in all good soils, and abounds in many
75
fertile ones, such as constitutes the leaf-mould of forests, such as is
produced in the fermenting of stable manure, and that forms the
principal part of swamp-muck and peat, — are the true nourish-
ment of vegetation, at any rate of the higher orders of plants,
those which supply food to man and to domestic animals.
In 1840, Liebig, in his celebrated and admirable treatise on
the " Applications of Chemistry to Agriculture and Physiology,"
gave as his opinion that these organic bodies do not nourish
vegetation except by the products of their decay. lie asserted
that they cannot enter the plant directly, but that the water,
carbonic acid and ammonia resulting from their decay, are the
substances actually imbibed by plants, and from these alone is
built up the organic or combustible part of vegetation.
To this day there is a division of opinion among scientific
men on this subject, some adopting the views of Liebig, others
adhering essentially to the old doctrines. Many experiments
and trials have been made with a view to settling this question,
but such are the difficulties of a direct solution that scarcely
definite results either way have been obtained.
On the one hand, Liebig and those who adopt his doctrines,
have demonstrated that these organic matters are not at all es-
sential to the growth of agricultural plants, and have shown
that they can constitute but a small part of the actual food of
vegetation taken in the aggregate.
On the other hand, there is no satisfactory evidence that the
soluble organic matters of the soil and of peat, are not actually
appropriated by, and, so far as they go, are not directly service-
able as food to plants.
Be this as it may, practice has abundantly demonstrated the
value of humus as an ingredient of the soil, and if not directly,
yet indirectly, it furnishes the material out of which plants build
up their parts.
2d. The organic matters of peat as indirect food to plants.
Very nearly one-half by weight of our common crops when per-
fectly dry, consists of carhon. The substance which supplies
this element to plants is the gas, carbonic acid. Plants derive
this gas mostly from the atmosphere absorbing it by means of
their leaves. But the free atmosphere, at only a little space
76
above tlie soil, contains but l-25,000th of its bulk of this gas,
whereas plants flourish in air containing a larger quantity, and
in fact their other wants being supplied, they grow better as the
quantity is increased to l-12th the bulk of the air. These con-
siderations make sufficiently obvious how important it is that
the soil have in itself a constant and abundant source of carbonic
acid gas. As before said, organic matter in a state of decay, is
the single material which the farmer can incorporate with his
soil in order to make it a supply of this most indispensable
form of plant-food.
The nitrogen of crops, an ingredient that characterizes those
vegetable substances which have the highest value as food for
man, is naturally supplied to plants in the form of ammonia, and
we are sufficiently aware of the great fertilizing value of this
substance and of its commercial worth, in the shape of guano,
&c., &c., for agricultural purposes, a worth depending upon the
fact of its comparative scarcity.
It has long been known that peat contains a considerable
quantity of nitrogen, and the average amount in the 83 speci-
mens I have submitted to analysis, including peats and swamp
mucks of all grades of quality, is equivalent to If ^jer cent, of
ammonia on the air-dried substance, or more than twice as much
as exists in the best stable or yard manure. In several peats
the amount is as high as 3 ^je?- cent.^ and in one case 3|- per cent,
were found.
There is a difference of opinion among chemists as to the state
in which this nitrogen exists in peat and humus. Some assume
it to be ammonia held in a peculiar state of combination with
the humic and other acids, so that the ordinary means fail to
separate it, and this is the most commonly received view. Cer-
tain it is that we cannot get much actual ammonia from a peat
by a treatment which will displace this body perfectly from a
guano or other ordinary manure. In two trials but about 1 per
cent, was obtained.
In order then to estimate the availability of the nitrogen of
peat, we must fall back on general principles, and practical ex-
perience.
We know from the exact demonstrations of chemical science
77
tliat when organic bodies decay tlieir elements enter into new
and more stable combinations and tliat tlieir nitrogen appears
in the form of ammonia. If bodies very rich in nitrogen un-
dergo a rapid putrefactive decay, a portion of the nitrogen sepa-
rates as such and escapes combination, it is probable however
that highly porous substances containing but a few per cent, of
nitrogen, yield all or nearly all their nitrogen in the shape of
ammonia, or, what has the same agricultural significance, in that
of nitric acid.
The conclusion then is entirely warranted that the nitrogen of
peat becomes almost completely available, as the peat decays in
the soil. This conclusion is supported by the fact attested by
practical men, that certain varieties of swamp-muck are equal
to stable manure in their fertilizing effects, although inferior to
the latter in respect to the quantity of substances usually held
to be active fertilizers which they contain, ammonia (nitrogen)
alone excepted.
8d. The decay of peat itself offers some peculiarities that
are worthy of notice in this connection. It is more gradual and
regular in decay than the vegetable matters of stable dung, or
than that furnished by turning under sod or green crops. It is
thus a more steady and lasting benefit, especially in light soils,
out of which ordinary vegetable manures disappear too rapidly.
The decay of peat appears to proceed through a regular series
of steps. In the soil, especially in contact with soluble alkaline
bodies as ammonia and lime, there is a progressive conversion
of the insoluble or less soluble into soluble compounds. Thus
the inert matters that resist the immediate solvent power of alka-
lies, absorb oxygen from the air and form the humic acid soluble
in alkalies ; the humic acids also undergo an analogous change,
and pass into crenic acid, and this body is converted into apo-
crenic acid. The two latter are soluble in water, and, in the
porous soil, they are rapidly brought to the end- result of decay,
viz. : water, carbonic acid and ammonia.
Great differences must be observed, however, in the rapidity
with which these changes take place. Doubtless they go on
most slowly in case of the black compact peats, and perhaps
many of the lighter and more porous samples of swamp-muck I
78
have examined would decay nearly as fast as unaltered vegetable
matter.
It might appear from the above statement that the effect of
exposing peat to the air as is done when it is incorporated with
the soil, would be to increase relatively the amount of soluble
organic matters ; but the fact is, that they are actually dimin-
ished and so because the ox3-dation and consequent removal of
these soluble matters (crenic and apocrenic acids) proceed more
rapidly than they can be produced from the less soluble humic
acid of the peat.
II. With regard to the inorganic matters of peat considered
as food to plants, it is obvious that leaving out of the account
for the present, some exceptional cases, they are useful as far as
they go.
In the ashes of peats, we almost always find small quanties
of sulphate of lime, magnesia and phosphoric acid. Potash and
soda too, are often present though never to any considerable
amount. Carbonate and sulphate of lime are large ingredients
of the ashes of about one-half the peats I have examined. The
ashes of the other half are largely mixed with sand and soil,
but in most cases also contain considerable sulphate and often
carbonate of lime and magnesia.
In one swamp-muck. No. 4, from Messrs. Pond and Miles,
Milford, there was found but two per cent, of ash, at least one
half of which was sand, and the remainder sulphate of lime,
(gypsum). In other samples 20, 80, 50 and even 60 per cent,
remained after burning off the organic matter. In these cases
the ash is chiefly sand. The amount of ash found in those peats
which were most free from sand ranges from 4 to 9 jjer cent.
Probably the average per centage of true ash, viz. : that derived
from the organic matters themselves not including sand and acci-
dental ingredients, is not far from 5 per cent.
I regret that time has not allowed me to make more complete
examinations of the ashes of all the peats that have come under
analysis. What I have been able to do is with two exceptions
simply to ascertain the presence, and in a rough way the com-
parative abundance of lime, magnesia, iron, svilphuric and car-
bonic acids. I am not entirely satisfied with the accuracy of
79
the iuferences which I have been obhged to draw from the neces-
sarily superficial ash-examinations. But to carry out full quan-
titative analyses of the ashes of 34 peats and mucks, is an im-
mense amount of labor, and could not be hoped to prove prac-
tically remunerative ; because it must be wath the analyses of
peats as it is with that of soils, they may be useful to establish a
general fact, but cannot be relied upon implicitly in individual
cases unless they are strongly marked and peculiar.
I give here a statement of the composition of the ash of two
peats, the only ones I have had time to examine fully. They
doubtless give a fair idea of the inorganic ingredients of the
majority of the peats submitted to trial, sand not being taken
into account.
Analysis of Peat ashes.
I.
II.
Potash,
.69
.80
Soda, - •• - ■
- .58
Lime,
- 40.52
35.59
Magnesia,
6.06
4.92
Oxyd of iron and alumina, -
5.17
9.08
Phosphoric acid,
- .50
.77
Sulphuric acid,
5.52
10.41
Chlorine,
- .15
.43
Soluble silica,
8.23
1.40
Carbonic acid.
19.60
22.28
Sand and charcoal, -
12.11
15.04
99.13
100.74
I. was furnished me by Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock,
and comes from a peat, (No. 12,) which he employs as fuel. For
the elaborate analysis I am indebted to Mr. Geo. F. Barker of
Charleston, Mass., a graduate of the Yale Scientific School.
II. (from peat No. 9,) was sent me by Mr. J. H. Stanwood of
Colebrook. Mr. O. C. Sparrow of Colchester, Ct., a graduate
of the Yale Scientific School, executed the analysis.
80
The fertilizing constituents of botli these ashes consist almost
entirely of carbonate and sulphate of lime, and carbonate of
magnesia. Phosphoric acid and potash are present, but in small
quantity. Nevertheless, as will be shown presentl}^, the ingre-
dients of these ashes must be considered as largely contributing
,to the fertilizing effect of the peats from which they were
derived.
In a few instances, there is an almost entire want of useful
ash ingredients, for example, in Virgin's mucks, Nos. 18, 19
and 20 ; and Hoyt's muck, No. 22. In these samples, besides
sand and oxyd of iron, there are only very minute quantities of
lime and magnesia to be found.
III. Comparison of Peat ivi'th Stable Manure.
The fertilizing value of peat is best understood by comparing
it with some standard manure. Stable manure is obviously that
fertilizer whose effects are most universally observed and ap-
preciated, and b}^ setting anal3'ses of thfe two side by side, we
may see at a glance, what are the excellencies and what the de-
ficiencies of peat. In order rightly to estimate the worth of
those ingredients which occur in but small per centage in peat,
we must remember that it like stable manure, may be, and
usually should be applied in large doses, so that in fact the
smallest ingredients come upon an acre in considerable quantity.
In making our comparison we will take the analysis of Peat
No. 12, (Mr. Buck's,) and one executed by Dr. Voclcker of the
Eoyal Agricultural College of England, on well-fermented farm
yard manure of best quality, from the mixed dung of horses,
cows and sheep.
The peat is understood to be simply air dried, yet perhaps
dryer than it would become if dug and left heaped over one
summer ; while the yard manure is moist from the heap, and of
the usual average dryness.
81
No. I, is tlie complete analysis of Peat ; No. II, of well rotted
stable manure :
O
Water expelled at 212 deg.
' Soluble in dilute solution of carbonate of
soda — soluble geine,
& -I
Insoluble in solution of carbonate of
soda,
Potash, .....
Soda, - - . . .
Lime, .....
Magnesia, - . . .
Oxyd of iron and alumina, -
Phosphoric acid.
Sulphuric acid, ....
Chlorine, ....
Soluble silica, ....
Carbonic acid, ....
Sand and charcoal,
I. II.
18.050 75.420
27.190
48.840
.041
.035
2.431
.3()4
.310
- .030
.331
- .009
.494
- 1.175
.700
16.530
.491
.080
1.990
.138
.673
.450
.121
.018
1.678
1.401
1.010
Potential ammonia,
Matters soluble in water.
100.000 100.000
- 2.920 .735
- 1.800 5.180
In studying the above anal3^ses we observe 1st, that this peat
contains ^ye ti7nes as imtch organic matter^ andyowr times as much
2:>oiential ammonia as the yard-manure. 2d. It contains more
lime, magnesia and sulphuric acid than yard-manure. 3d. It is
deficient in potash and phosphoric acid. We see thus that peat
and yard-manure are excellently adapted to go together ; each
supplies the deficiencies of the other.
We see also from this tliat peat requires the addition of j^^ios-
phates^ (in the shape of bone-dust, or phosphatic guano,) and of
jiotash, (as unleached wood ashes,) in order to make it precisely
equal in comiiosition to stable manure.
But there are some other questions to be discussed, for two
manures may reveal to the chemist the same composition and
yet be very unlike in their fertilizing effects, because their con-
ditions are unlike, because they differ in their degrees of solu-
bility or availability.
Now, as before insisted upon, it is true in general, that peat is
82
mucli more slow of decomposition tlian yard-manure, and this
fact which is an advantage in an amendment is a disadvantage
in a fertilizer. Though there may be some peats, or rather
mucks, which are energetic and rapid in their action, it seems
that the most of them need to be applied in larger quantities
than stable manure in order to produce equal fertilizing effects.
Another matter that may be noticed here is the apparent con-
tradiction between Chemistry, which says that peat is not equal
to stable manure as a fertilizer, and practice, which in many cases
affirms that it is equal to our standard manure.
In the first place, the chemical conclusion is a general one and
does not apply to individual peats, which in a few instances may
be superior to yard-manure. If I mistake not, the practical
judgment also is, that in general yard-manure is the best.
To go to the individual cases, 2d, a peat in which ammonia
exists, to 3 or 4 times the amount found in stable or yard
manure, may for a few seasons produce better results than the
latter, merely on account of the presence of this one ingredient,
it may in fact, for the soil and crop to which it is applied, he a
better fertilizer than yard manure, because the substance anmio-
nia is most needed in that soil, and yet for the generality of soils,
or in the long run, it may prove to be an inferior fertilizer.
A""ain, 3d, the melioration of the physical qualities of a soil,
the amendment of its dryness and excessive porosity, by means
of peat may be more effective for agricultural purposes, than the
application of tenfold as much fertilizing, i. e. plant-feeding ma-
terials ; in the same way that the mere draining of an over-
moist soil often makes it more productive than do the heaviest
manu rings.
6. On the characters of Peat that are detrimental, or that may
sometimes need correction before it is agricidturally useful.
1st. Bad effects on heavy soils.
We have laid much stress on the amending qualities of peat,
when applied to dry and leachy soils, which by its use are ren-
dered more retentive of moisture and manure. Now these prop-
erties which it would seem are just adapted to renovate very
lio-ht land, under certain circumstances may become disadvan-
tao-eous on heavier soils. On clays no application is needed to
83
retain moisture. They are already too wet as a general tlnno-.
Unless a soil be open, some varieties of muck, (the denser peat-
like kinds) are too slow in deca}^ and therefore do not 3')eld up
their stores of plant-food with sufficient rapidity.
Put into the soil it lasts much longer than stubble, or green
crops plowed in, or than long manure. If buried too deeply,
or put into a heavy soil, especiall}' if in large quantity, it does
not decay, but remains wet, and tends to make a bog of the field
itself.
In soils that are rather heavy, it is therefore best to compost
the muck with some rapidly fermenting manure. We thus get
a compound which is quicker than muck, and slower than stable
manure, etc., and is therefore better adapted to the wants of the
soil than either of these would be alone.
Here it will be seen that much depends on the character of
the muck itself. If light, spongy, Ijrown or gray in color, and
easily dried, it may be used alone with advantage on loamy soils,
whereas if dense, black, and coherent like some of the Irish
peats, a block of which when dry, will make a voyage across the
Atlantic in the boiler of a steamship without losing its form — it
would most likely be a poor amendment on a soil which has
much tendency to become compact, and therefore docs not read-
ily free itself from excess of water.
A clay soil if thorough-drained and deeply -ploived^ may be won-
derfully improved by even a heav}^ dressing of muck, as then,
the water being let off, the muck can exert no detrimental action,
but operates as effectually to loosen a too heavy soil as in case ntains miiich snlpliate of lime and some salts of iron.
with a small quantity of chloride of sodium. Contains also some silica, but no car-
bonic acid.
f Ash mostly a fine sand, with some clay ; yields much iron and some sulphate
of lime, and magnesia to acids.
155
11. Tahulated Analyses.
Ammonia.
Nitrogen.
Soluble in water.
M -J* -H o o lO t- o o i.o o-i c-i c-i o -f o \n
;s r-i M -* r^ o C5 o o o ci Ci ci -T(< o c^x o
cH c*i ci 1-^ "-^ c^i ^^ "— ' f"" C""* '"' ^' ^^ ^^ M ^^ ^^
II II II II II II II 11 II II II II II II II II II
C^ CO 03 C^l O '- 5^ rO "M ■— I O "i; -# .~ c6 x ^
I— lra in o ^ lO o C3 « •* ^ o -(* ci ro
1— O I— C~. O O i-O .-< -f C-l ^CO CO O O -H O CO
-ti r-.' o -^ o oo' o o i- o ci oc" o ii' Ti in CO
Soluble in carbonate of soda,
s -
^^ p ~ -^
.2 8 g ,^ §
s- fc n '^ o 3
o O ■
-^ .H -^
^ Oj
^ -
S- §
'^ -2 4-r o fS
55 oj i: 1-5 ^
^ . .2 . .& = X .?i
CE«
>• a « H^ a
o ■ ■ a
il^ ■< Ph Ph
r-(C^Cr5^lO»C-OOC5©rH(MfO'rtC^©©,— l05.-iin
© ©' ©" t-H ©' r-I ^ ■— i .-< C-i I— I M i-H rH oi r-H
II 11 II II II II II II II II II II II II II II
Ofoc~JiO'*aj©Ofocoooojior-M
©' © ©' f! ©' ® i-J rH r4 r-I © r-J ©■ 1-3 n-i ,-H
Water.
Total.
Insoluble in water and car-
bonate of soda.
Insol . in water but soluble
in carbonate of soda.
■<4<©l:-©0O"*,— ii— I ©OOi Jr-fO-^
C>l-!©©05C00>O©C^'^I-iCM-HC5iOt-100M©
rcc^c^ot-o^Dri'c-jinfOcooot-©'^
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bonate of soda .
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157
«
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t- OOOOC^OOlr-l:— OOint— iJr-t— coo
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158
Percentage of potential am-
monia calculated on the
organic matter.
h^. ^_ "J^ O fl lO O O Oi fO CO O t- C<1 CB -*
M l4 C-i CO C-l TJH Tji M r-i -* r-H CO i-.' c6 M lO
Potential ammonia.
CO —1 CnO00 ^
■*t-toir-o-*e^a>u:5 .2
, . W
-t-' O -w
: '^ -
«
bo-
a
t>
a HH
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a: o — «^
00-50
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.
SCALE OF PEICES.
The valuation of the chief iiigrediouts of commercial fertilizers remains as in my
First Report, and is as follows :
Potash, 4 ets. per lb.
Insoluble phosphoric acid, 4.J- "
Soluble " " 121 "
Ammonia, 14 "
THE QLTINNIPIAC COMPANY S FISH MANURE.
In March, 1858, I was consulted by tbe Quinnipiac Company
of Wallingford, Conn., with reference to a fish manure which
they manufacture, and obtained their consent to publish the re-
sult of the analyses that were made. Nothing is more obvious
than that the true interests of the manufacturer and of the farmer
are identical, and equally promoted as well b}^ an exposure of
what is worthless, as by commendation of what is useful. The
Quinnipiac Company employed me to analyze their fish manure
in order to ascertain definitely for themselves, how it compares
with standard fertilizers, and are willing that I should pronounce
public judgment on it according to its merits.
The quality and price of the fish manure is such that it de-
serves to be commended to our farmers; esjiecially since, as I
am credibly informed, the Company bears a high reputation,
which is a guaranty that they will continue to manufacture an
article as good as they have submitted for analysis.
9.67
9.6S
67.78
65.68
2.05
1.96
8.76
3.38
3.41
.81
.33
8.36
8.23
$32.00 per ton.
$31.40 per ton.
160
Analysis.
Water, ....
Organic (animal) matter, -
Sand, - - - - -
Lime, . . . - -
Soluble pliosphoric acid,
Insoluble " " •
Ammonia yielded by animal matter -
Calculated value.
Manufacturer's price.
This manure is not so rich either in phosphoric acid or in
ammonia as the best qualities of fish manure ; but it is never-
theless entitled to a high rank among concentrated fertilizers.
It yields fully one-half as much ammonia as the best Peruvian
guano, and nearly all the phosphoric acid it contains is in a form
soluble in water.
The calculated value is estimated from the prices adopted in
my First Annual Report.
The manure is sold by measure. The Company inform me
that it weighs 35 pounds, and is sold at 55 cents, per struck
bushel. From these figures the price per ton, as given above,
is reckoned.
The mechanical condition is very good. In employing this
manure it must be borne in mind that, like Peruvian guano, it
is capable of supplying only a part of the wants of vegetation,
so that the use of some phosphatic manure and of leached ashes,
muck or stable manure, with it, will be better economy in most
cases than depending on it alone.
The manufiicturers recommend to apply it to Indian corn, for
example, either broadcast at the rate of 20 to 40 bushels per
acre or 3 bushels in the hill. It is doubtless generally the best
plan to manure the plant rather than the soil, i. e., if a crop
grows in hills or drills, to manure in the hill or drill ; if the crop
is sown broadcast, manure in the same manner. If I understand
rightly, a much larger application in the hill than three bushels
per acre, is likely to prove detrimental.
It is to be hoped that this successful attempt to manufacture
a substitute for Peruvian guano in our own State, will meet
161
with sucli encouragement as to make fish manure a staple fertili-
zer. With the stimulus of abundant patronage, this kind of
manure can be prepared of better quality and furnished at a
less price ; while if judiciously used, it cannot fail to improve
our lands permanently, at the same time that it yields better
yearly crops.
THE GREEN SAND MARL OF NEW JERSEY.
In the Spring of 1858 I was informed that the "New Jersey
Fertilizer Company " intended shipping to this State some car-
goes of this material, and although I am not aware that their
intention has been carried out as yet, there is apparently no rea-
son why the Green Sand Marl may not become an article of
commerce between Connecticut and New Jersey, and I therefore
communicate to the public such account of its nature and use as
I have been able to collect.
The Green Sand Marl is a peculiar geological deposit, met
with in various parts of this and other countries, but most largely
developed in the State of New Jersey, where it occupies or un-
derlies an area of 900 square miles. This tract extends from
Sandy Hook south westwardly to Salem, on the Delaware Eiver,
a distance of ninety miles, and is six to fourteen miles in breadth.
It is only in a few localilies, however, that it is found on the sur-
face of the earth ; it being overlaid with soil throughout the
great share of this vast district. It has long been known that
this marl, as it is called, is exceedingly useful as a fertilizer when
applied upon the contiguous lands. The discovery is said to
have been made bv accident, and the effects were so strikins;,
that in those parts of New Jersey, where it is easily accessible,
it is now one of the chief reliances of the farmer.
The deposit of green sand marl has a variable thickness, and
is by no means uniform in appearance. It often has a tine green
color. This color is due to the green sand which is its charac-
teristic ingredient. Often, and indeed generally, the color of the
marl is greenish-gray or brown, from an admixture of clay and
other substances. The green sand itself occurs in the form of
grains like gunpowder. These grains are brown externally, if
they have been exposed to the air, owing to the higher oxyda-
tion (or rusting,) of the protoxyd of iron contained in them ;
162
but if waslied or broken, their proper green color is always man-
ifested. This color enables us to distinguish the green sand from
all other sands by the eye alone.
The green sand has a nearly uniform composition, and hence
is considered a distinct mineral, and for the sake of distinction
is called Glanconite (which means "sea-green stone,") by the
mineralogists.
In virtue of its composition and easy decomposability, green
sand is an excellent fertilizer.
Its average composition in 100 parts is:
Silica, .... - 49.5
Alumina, - - - - - 7.3
Protoxyd of Iron, .... 22.8
Potash, - - - - - 11.5
Water, ..... 7.9
Lime, ..... .5
Magnesia, ..... trace.
On account of its finely divided state, when freely exposed to
the air and w^ater of the soil it gradually ilecomposes, and its
potash, silica and protoxyd of iron become soluble, or at any
rate available to vegetation. The protox3'd of iron which is
useful in small quantity, but detrimental if largely present in the
soil, is prevented from accumulating to excess by the fact that it
rapidly absorbs oxygen from the air, and passes into peroxyd
(iron rust.) The peroxyd of iron and alumina together with the
silica, are important means of increasing the power of the
soil to absorb and retain manures.
Many sandy and light soils are deficient in potash, and hence
the green sand is useful when applied to them. It has indeed
been supposed that this fertilizer owes its efficiency chiefly to its
large content of potash. The other ingredients that we have
mentioned are, however, useful to a greater or less degree.
Not only the green sand itself, but likewise the other matters
w^hich, with it, make up the marl, must be taken account of in
considering its fertilizing value. The admixtures of clay, quartz
sand, etc., are quite variable, ranging in quantity from 10 to 60
per cent, of the whole ; thus more or less reducing the amount
of manurial matters, and at the same time either improving or
163
injuring the general composition by their own accidental ingre-
dients.
The clay mixed with or overlying the green sand, in many
localities contains quantities of a shining yellow mineral called
iron pyrites or "fool's gold," which consists of iron and sulphur,
and by exposure to the atmosphere is converted into sulphate of
iron, (common copperas or green vitriol.) From this source the
marl is sometimes so impregnated with sulphate of iron as to be
destructive to vegetation when applied fresh from the pits. This
difficulty is not, however, general, so far as I can learn, and in
all cases is obviated by exposing the marl for a year or so to the
w^eather, and by composting it with lime or with stable manure.
By these means the iron is changed from the protoxyd to the
peroxyd, which latter is harmless under all circumstances.
In some localities the marl is mixed with a large proportion
of fragments of shells, and thus contains considerable carbonate
and a small amount of phosphate of lime. Sulphate of lime or
plaster, is also an occasional ingredient.
The following analyses copied from Professor Cook's Report
on the Geology of New Jersey, clearly show the nature and ex-
tent of the variations in composition, to which the marl as em-
ployed for agricultural purposes is subject.
Analyses.*
1
2
3
4 5
6
Protoxyd of iron,
8.3
16.8
21.3
14.9
Alumina,
- -6.1
6.Q
8.0
Lime,
2.4
12.5
1.0
Magnesia,
A
2.6
2.0
Potash, -
2.5
4.9
7.1
7.1 4.3
3.7
Soluble silica,
- 20.2
31.2
45.9
Insoluble silica and sand,
49.9
5.6
4.0
Sulphuric acid.
.9
.6
.4
Phosphoric acid,
1.4
1.1
1.3
.2 2.6
6.9
Carbonic, "
.2
9.3
Water,
7.1
8.9
8.1
Soluble in water,
- 1.9
1.4
1.1
1.1 1.9
4.7
* lu cop,ying the analj^ses, the decimals of the percentages have been abridged
from two figures to one.
11
164
Potasli it is seen ranges from 2^ to 7 per cent. The average
is about 4|- per cent. One of the specimens is half sand and in-
soluble matters. No. 2 contains 12|^ per cent, of lime, and 9 per
cent, of carbonic acid, or 21 per cent, of carbonate of lime. Phos-
phoric acid is almost wanting in No. 4 ; but in No. 6 exists to
the amount of 7 per cent. The usual quantity of phosphoric
acid however, does not exceed 1 to 2 per cent.
From the composition of the green sand marl we might know
that it is a good manure without any actual trials ; but the expe-
rience of the New Jersey farmers during many years has so
folly demonstrated its value, that the question arises — may it not
be procured and transported so cheaply as to admit of profitable
use in this State? The following quotation from Professor
Cook's Report may serve to assist us in answering this question.
" The absolute worth of the marl to farmers it is difficult to
estimate. The region of country in which it is found has been
almost made by it. Before its use the soil was exhausted, and
much of the land had so lessened in value that its price was but
little, if any more than that of government lands at the West ;
while now, by the use of the marl, these worn out soils have
been ^Drought to more than native fertility, and the value of the
land increased from fifty to a hundred fold. In these districts
as a general fact, the marl has been obtained at little more than
the cost of digging and hauling but a short distance. There are
insta,nees however, in which large districts of worn out land have
been entirely renovated by the use of these substances, though
situated from five to fifteen miles from the marl beds, and when,
if a fair allowance is made for labor, the cost per bushel could
not have 'been less than from twelve to sixteen cents. Instances
are known when it has been thought remunerative at twenty-
five cents per ibushel."
The New Jersey Fertilizer Company deliver the marl on board
vessels at their wharf at Portland Heights, N. J., for seven cents
per bushel. The bushel when first raised weighs 100 lbs. ; when
dry 80 lbs. I doubt not that the average qualities of this marl
are better bushel for bushel, than leached ashes. The best kinds
are much superior, and in the inferior sorts there is much more
weight of valuable fertilizing matters than in an equal bulk of
165
leached aslies ; but this advantage has its offset in the superior
fineness, and consequent greater activity of the leached ashes.
If then the expenses of transportation are small, as they are
when large quantities are shipped, there is no reason why our
farmers, who are located near tide water, may not use this fertil-
izer to great advantage, especially if they can have a good arti-
cle guaranteed them.
The marl is especially useful for potatoes and root crops, but
on poor soils is good for any crop. It is applied at the rate of
one to two hundred bushels per acre.
"animalized phosphate of lime."
A specimen of the so-called " Animalized Phosphate of Lime,"
made by Hartley & Co., of Plymouth, Conn., received from Mr.
Dyer, was analyzed with tlie following results, per cent.:
Water, .-..._
Sand and silica, . . - . _
Organic and volatile matter, - - - .
Hydrated sulphate of lime, (unburned plaster,)
Carbonate of lime, - . . . .
Magnesia, ------
Oxyd of iron, alumina and phosphoric acid, -
Carbonic acid (combined with alkalies,)
Alkalies, chlorine and loss, - - . -
100.00
Ammonia yielded by organic matter, - - 0.33 0.35
The analysis is not fully carried out, separate determinations
of the quantity of phosphoric acid and of potash not having
been made. The phosphoric acid cannot amount to more than
1^ per cent., the potash not more than 3 per cent. These quan-
tities are of small account in a high-priced fertilizer. To finish,
the analysis in these particulars would serve no important use.
I find by a simple calculation that a manure equal, and indeed
superior to the above, in composition and value, weight for
weight, may be made after the following recipe :
60 pounds of ground plaster.
37 " hard wood ashes (unleached.)
3 ** Peruvian guano.
6.18
8.12
8.61
55.50
13.03
1.77
1.76
1.03
4.00
166
Sucli a mixture can be manufactured at a profit for $10 per
per ton, and if I do not greatly mistake, most farmers can get
the ingredients for $5 to $7 per ton.
This article claims to be " made from the bones, blood and
flesh of animals, digested in acid liquors, and dessicated with
various saline fertilizers, in such a manner that all the valuable
gases and salts are retained in a dry powder." It is seen that
the quantity of " various saline fertilizers," is so large compared
with the "bones, blood and flesh of animals," that the result is
comparatively worthless commercially speaking. When we con-
sider that 75 to 80 per cent, of a dead animal is water, it is easy
to understand that it requires careful manufacturing to make a
concentrated manure from the carcasses of horses, &c.
It is usual to employ oil-of- vitriol to decompose and deodorize
animal matters in preparing manures. This is very well, but if
a large quantity of cheap materials are afterward mixed up with
the product, the value of the whole becomes so reduced, that
the expense of manufacturing is a dead loss to the farmer who
in the end pays for it, in case the manure finds a market.
If the sample furnished me represents the average quality of
this manure, it may be confidently asserted that those who pay
for it $50 per ton, (the manufacturers price,) will lose the better
share of their money.
PERUVIAN GUANO.
From the store of Wm. Kellogg^ Hartford.
"Water, . . - . -
Organic matter, . . . -
Total ammonia, ....
Phosphoric acid, soluble in water, -
" " insoluble in water, -
Sand, ... - -
Calculated value, $61.20.
The above figures show that this fertilizer maintains its uni-
formity and excellence of composition to a remarkable degree.
The soluble phosphoric acid, it should be remembered, is equal
in quantity to the average amount of this ingredient in our com-
17.22
17.41
49.41
49.60
16.32
16.38
2.32
2.32
11.03
10.81
1.90
2.07
167
mercial superpliospliates, aud is accompanied with two to tliree
per cent, of potash, which, though of trilhng commercial value
hj the side of ammonia, is nevertheless of great manurial worth
on the light soils where guano is most often applied.
ELIDE GUANO.
This is an article that purports to come from the coast of Cal-
ifornia. It is a genuine guano, similar though inferior to Peru-
vian. It is afforded at two-thirds the price of Peruvian, and an
analysis is of much interest as showing its real commercial value.
It appears from the analyses of other chemists that this guano
is quite variable in composition, at least so far as the quantity of
moisture is concerned. I give some of the results of Dr. Stew-
art, chemist to the Maryland Agricultural Society, and of Dr.
Deck, of New York, by way of comparison. I should say with
regard to its texture, that at first sight it is rather unpromising,
containing some genuine stones and a good many hard lumps
that are difficult to crush unless they are dried.
A mechanical analysis gave per cent. :
Fine portion passing a sieve of 20 holes per inch, - 74
Lumps easily reduced after drying, - - 22
Pebbles, ...... 4
100.00
When dried, however, the whole is as easily crushed as Peru-
vian guano, the pebbles of course excepted.
The analysis of the whole, rejecting the pebbles only, is given
under I. Under II. are figures from Dr. Stewart's, and under
III. from Dr. Deck's analysis.
I.
Water, - - 27.31 27.60
Organic and volatile matter, 89.20 38.75
(Yielding ammonia,) (10.00) (10.06)
Phos. acid soluble in water, 5.07 5.31
" " insol. in water, 6A6 6.25
Sulphuric acid, - - l.Ol
Lime, - - - 9.67 9.36
Potash and a little soda, 5.52 9.60 .
Sand and insoluble matters, 2.50 2.52 4.70 3.24
Calculated value, $46.60, or including the potash $50.
II.
III.
18.90
22.64
43.30
43.58
(9.39)
(11.46)
11.00
168
The liigli percentage of soluble phosphoric acid depends upon
the presence of potash and soda.
It must be borne in mind that this manure is considerably-
variable in composition, and is so moist that it may easily dete-
riorate by keeping.
The specimen I have analyzed is considerably cheaper than
Peruvian guano. It remains to be seen, however, whether oth-
er cargoes or other lots are equal to this, before the reputation of
the Elide guano can be established.
SUPERPHOSPHATES OF LIME.
But four specimens of this manure have been analyzed this
year. Two of these, I. and II., were from the store of Messrs.
Backus and Barstow, Norwich ; the others, III. and IV., from
Wm. Kellogg, Hartford.
I. II. III. IV.
Pike & Co.
av. 10 b'gs.
Coe & Co.
av. 25 b'gs.
Greene &
Preston.
Coe's.
Water, organic & vol. matters, 138.50 38.50136.55 36.15j32.96— 32.28140.85 — 41.25
Sand, ' - - - 128.85 28.8o| 2.70 2.8o| 2.45— 2.80] 6.05— 5.95
1.98 2.221 2.85 2.92] 2.28— 2.43! 2.62— 1.70
2.29 2.08il8.13 17.78 19.12— 17. 64|l5.76—lG.30
2.44 2.45 3.14 3.11 1.39— 1.391 2.97— 2.74
$14.00 I $32.00 1 $26.31 |$37.81^ton
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Insoluble, " "
Ammonia,
Calculated value,
I. Is seen to be a very inferior article ; more than one-quarter
of it (28 per cent) is sand! This fact indicates that it is most
probably some manufacturing refuse. The calculated value will
give the former an idea how much he can afford to pay for it ;
but manures so largely mixed with sand, cannot be carefully
prepared ; and as other samples may contain much more sand,
it is best not to buy this manure at all unless on an analysis.
II. III. and IV. are all fair samples of " superphosphates," as
that word is now used, though none of them contain appreciably
more soluble phosphoric acid than Peruvian guano. It seems, as
yet, impossible to find a real superphosphate (yielding 10-15 per
cent, of soluble phosphoric acid) iia the Connecticut market.
The above analyses do not accord very closely in some partic-
ulars. This is due to the fact that the samples were too moist
169
to allow of intimate mixtare. The slight clifFerences are, how-
ever, of no importance in estimating the value of these articles.
All these specimens were in good mechanical condition. The
first sample of Coe's superphosphate is of the same quality which
it has hitherto possessed. The analyses of it read almost pre-
cisely like those made last year ; but there is some falling off in
the other sample IV., in which the percentages of sand and
water are both somewhat larger, and all the active ingredients
are accordingly reduced in proportion.
The difference in value between 11. and IV. amounts to $4.20
per ton.
Green k Preston's is still inferior to IV. chiefly from contain-
ing less ammonia.
CASTOR PUMMACE.
Messrs. Baker, Latourette & Co., 142 Water St., New York
City, manufacturers of linseed and castor oils, have recently un-
dertaken the new enterprise of importing the castor bean from
India, and expressing the oil from it in New York. The cake
or pummace remaining from this operation, has been found to
possess valuable fertilizing properties, and is already employed
as a manure in England. I have been employed to analj^ze the
castor pummace, and it has turned out so satisfactorily, that in
my opinion it will be doing the members of the State Society a
service, to communicate the results, and do so herewith, having
obtained permission of the manufacturers.
Anal >/ sis.
Water, ...... 9.24
Oil, 18.02
Woody fibre and mucilage, - - - - 88.29
Nitrogenous bodies (albumen, etc.,) - - 28.31
Ash, ...... 6.14
100.00
170
In the ash were raimd —
Sand, ..--.. 0.75
Lime. .--._. 0.36
Phospkoiic acid, - . . . . o ("y.
Alkalies witii a little magnesia, suiph. iiric and carb. aeiiis, 2 .09
6.14
The amount of nitrogen in the nitrogenons bodies was found
to be 4.02 per cent, corresponding to 5.4S per cent, of potential
ammonia.
On account of the purgative effect of the castor oil, the pum-
mace cannot be employed as f»d for cattle, and its wbole agri-
cultural value must c-onsist in its fertilizing applications.
Its worth commercially considered, lies exclusively* in its
content of phosphoric acid and ammonia. Its calculated value,
using the prices adopted in my first annual report, viz., four and
a half ceni3 per pound for insoluble phosphoric acid, and four-
teen cente per p3und for ammonia, is §17.20 per ton (2000 lbs.)
The manufacturers inform me that hitherto they have sent the
castor pummace to England, where it commands a price of £4
lC>s, sterling per ton (the English ton of 224