84 [Senate 



owners, after seeing its effect on my garden, are now as anxious to 

 save this refuse matter as they were before to get rid of it." The oily 

 or sweaty matter on unwashed wool, is a soapy substance having a 

 base of potash, with an excess of oily matter, with slight traces of 

 the carbonate and muriate of potash, all valuable as manures; and as 

 all are easily soluble in water, such w^ater should never be lost. A 

 wool merchant at Montpelier, had his washing house in the midst of 

 a field, the greater part of which he had, by the use of this wash, 

 with which he watered his plants, transformed into a fine garden. 

 The experiments made by Judge Buel and by Mr. Bement, with hog's 

 bristles and horn shavings, were conclusive as to the value of these 

 substances for manures. In short, as all substances of this nature 

 are nearly pure gelatine, with a slight addition of the phosphates of 

 lime, it is evident their decay must furnish an abundant supply of 

 ammonia to plants, and therefore render them valuable as a manure. 

 There is but one other manure of animal origin to which it will be 

 necessary to allude in this place, and that is urine, or as it is commonly 

 L' uid called, liquid manure. Analysis proves that this is a sub- 

 Manure, stance peculiarly rich in materials required by plants, and ex- 

 perience enforces the results of analysis; yet not one farmer in a thou- 

 sand makes an effort to convert this mine of riches to any account, 

 but the whole is most generally lost to him. Dr. Dana gives the fol- 

 lowing as the constituents of cattle urine, which may stand as the 

 type of all others, though human urine and that of the horse differ 

 from this in the character and quantity of some of the salts contain- 

 ed in them: 



Water, 65 . 



Urea, 5 . 



Bone dust, 5 . 



Sal ammoniac and muriate of potass, 15 . 



Sulphate of potash, 6 . 



Carbonate of potash and ammonia, 4 . 



100. 



Compared with cattle dung, it will be seen that while that gives only 



2 lbs. of carbonate of ammonia to lOOlbs.of dung, the urine gives 5 lbs. 



„ of ammonia in its urea, and nearly three times that amount 

 Value of . 



Urine, j^ t^g other ammoniacal salts. One-third of urine is com- 

 posed of salts, whose action on vegetation is of the most energetic 

 and favorable kind; and yet there are thousands who call themselves 

 pretty good farmers, who use all reasonable precaution to preserve 



