No. 6S.J 209 



left to decompose and rot upon the surface, when the greater part of 

 their value is lost by exhalation. 



As mossbonkers are in season at the time of sowing buckwheat, 

 they are frequently applied as a manure for this crop; and at the rate 

 of eight or nine thousand to the acre, they will without any other 

 manure have the desired effect. It has been observed, however, that 

 the soil so manured is deprived of something more than the fish ap- 

 plied, as it becomes deteriorated, and is left weedy and sour. This 

 method of appropriating fish has been adopted from the facility of 

 procuring and the little labor of applying them. But it is a wasteful 

 and most ofiensive way of fertilizing the soil, as in plowing the fields 

 to bury the fish, they are not completely covered, many being left on 

 the surface or sticking up between the furrows. In a few days they 

 begin to putrify, and the stench is wafted by the winds to a conside- 

 rable distance, to the annoyance of all the neighborhood. Myriads of 

 large green flies are engendered by the putrid fish, and they spread 

 over the adjacent fields, light upon the fruits of the season and give 

 them a fishy taste. 



The best method of converting mossbonkers into manure, is to 

 make a heap with alternate layers of fish and soil, or peat, or swamp 

 muck, and let the heap remain until the ensuing spring. The soil 

 or peat absorbs the liquid and gaseous matter as the fish decompose, 

 and in due time the whole heap becomes a fine inodorous mass of ex- 

 cellent manure. Few persons, however, who manure with fish, will 

 take the trouble to heap them and wait a year before they are given 

 to the land, preferring to take the easiest and shortest method of em- 

 ploying them, though highly offensive to themselves and others. 



Poudrette. — This article is manufactured in New-York, from night 

 soil, and rendered inodorous by mixing it wath peat and other sub- 

 stances which are kept secret. It is supposed that ashes, lime, or 

 plaster of Paris, are some of the ingredients employed. Ammonia 

 is an important and principal agent in poudrette as a fertilizer. It 

 arises spontaneously from the decomposition of urine in sinks and 

 stables, and when the contents of these are exposed to the atmos- 

 phere, much of their ammonia is dissipated in gaseous exhalation, 

 unless arrested by chlorate of lime (bleaching salts,) or ground plaster 

 of P?»ris, (gypsum.) 



In the "Cultivator," (vol. 9, page 156,) it is said that poudrette 

 is from twelve \o fifteen times as strong or efficacious as good stable 

 or barn-yard manure. This may be the theory of the subject, but 

 here it has been found otherwise in practice, the article being so di- 

 luted with peat or other earthy substance as to reduce its strength 

 and value. It is nevertheless, if well made, a good fertilizer, is not 

 bulky and may be conveyed to a distance in barrels at a small ex- 

 pense, in comparison w^ith the street dirt and horse manure, collected 

 in New-York. This article has been introduced into Richmond coun- 

 ty, and used to a limited extent, but the farmers generally do not 

 appreciate its good qualities, though we learn that it is extensively 

 and beneficially employed on Long-Island. 



[Senate No. 63.] B* 



