216 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



course of publicatiou, of our illuatrioua peimaneut secretary, 

 M. Elie de Beaumout, is at this moueat drawing the atten- 

 tion of the public to the same subject. 



There would indeed be au immense beueBt to agriculture iu 

 obtaining phosphate of lime, assimilable by plants, to the same 

 extent as phosphate of ground boues acidified, imperfectly 

 carbonized, or mixed with oigaulc azotous substances, such as 

 are present in the refuse of sugar refiuerie;. 



Under these conditions phosphate of lime, by virtue of its 

 interposition in the midst of organic tissue, presents itself in a 

 state of extreme division easily assailable by acids. 



Iu England its divisibility, as well as its dissolubility, are 

 still further increased by treating the bones with sulphuric 

 acid, which forms sulphate and bisulphate of lime, attacking 

 even the organic tissue, so that the osseous fragments become 

 soft and friable. 



In presence of the carbonate limestone of the soil, or of that 

 which is aided to the bones thus disintegrated, the excess of 

 acid is found saturated, the organic azotous matter becomes 

 spontaneously changeable, and the ammouiacal products of its 

 decomposition co-operate of themselves to the nutrition of 

 plants. 



Effects analogous to these take place when we employ car- 

 bonized boues in powder, mixed with the blood used in effect- 

 ing the clarification of sugar or syrups; there are added to them 

 reactions equally favourable, dependent on the porosity of that 

 animal charcoal, capable of coudensiug the ambient gas, and of 

 yielding them gradually afterwards to the absorbent organs of 

 the vegetables. 



It is not known to be entirely the same with mineral phos- 

 phates ; endowed with a very strong cohesion, the mechanical 

 means by which, even to this day, we are only able to treat 

 them, are insufllcieut to reduce them to a state of division 

 comparable to that of phosphate of bones. 



Besides, have not the importations of mineral phosphates 

 from Estramadura into Great Britain, produced amongst the 

 agriculturists all the favourable results that are expected from 

 them ? One of us, M. Dumas, had the opportunity, in 1850, 

 of stilting this fact, during a mission with w hich he was charged 

 by the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, relative 

 to the agricultural improvements introduced into England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland :* it docs not appear that they have 

 since succeeded iu obtaining in Great Britain as good effects 

 from the mineral phosphates as from boues, or the black resi- 

 dues of the refineries. 



On his part, M. Moridc, who, with M. Bobierre, has ren- 

 dered indisputable services to agriculture, by analyzing the 

 manures deposited in the Government dockyards, and exposing 

 certain frauds in commercial manures, has proved by direct ex- 

 periments the insolubility of many mineral phosphates in the 

 weak acids, in the state iu which they are now offered to agri- 

 culturists ;t and he has thought it his duty to caution these 



• See the Reports on Drainage, the Retting of Flax, the Peat 

 Mosses, the Rakerics, and the Commercial Manures, puUlisl.od by 

 the Minislcr, and in the Memoirs of the Central Society of Agri- 

 culture in 1S50. 



t In order to demonstrate the solubility of certain pulverized 

 phosphates, M. Moridc has taken of cacli of them 0.05 gr., and 

 treated tlicm with 10 cubic centimetres of acetic acid during ten 

 minutes at + 65 degrees. The filtered liquid was precipitated 



last, by pointing out to them the meaus of detecting the 

 mineral phosphates mixed, whether it be with organic matters 

 or with the phosphate of bones, or with the bones black of the 

 reentries. For this purpose he recommends particularly the 

 employment of acetic acid in a boiling state, which attacks 

 and dissolves these last, whilst it leaves the others intact, and 

 the incineration of which yields, with the phosphate of bones or 

 the black of the refineries, white ashes ; whilst the mineral 

 phosphates produce red or brown ashes. 



We shall render to agriculture a still greater service if we 

 discover the meaus of economically dividing the mineral phos- 

 phates to the state iu which they readily become assimilable 

 by plants. 



M. Morin thinks that we shall attain it by dissolving these 

 natural phosphates by powerful mineral acids, in order to se- 

 parate them from the sand ; then by precipitating the solution 

 with amraoniacal and magnesian liquids, afterwards adding to 

 it animal or fermentable matters. 



This process, probably efficacious, would undoubtedly be too 

 expensive ; at least, it could not be executed in localities 

 where they have not the opportunity of applying to it the dis- 

 sipated vapours of cMorhydrate aciJ, and add to it afterwards 

 either magnesian sea-water or amraoniacal water condensed in 

 the refrigerators of oil gas, or hydrate of lime ; and every- 

 thing leads us to hope that we may succeed in reuniting eco- 

 nomic conditions of this kind which admit of utilizing the na- 

 tural phosphates. 



Whatever may happen, M. Moride will have effected a useful 

 object at this moment, on which we perhaps found, upon the 

 incomplete preparation of mineral phosphates, great expecta- 

 tions, by calling the attention of agriculturists to facts which 

 were little known to them. 



We have, in consequence, the honour of proposing to you to 

 address to this young scholar the thanks of the Academy, re- 

 commending him to follow up bis useful investigations.* 



Pa YEN, 



Member of the Academy of Sciences, and Permanent 

 Secretary of the Central Society of Agriculture. 



by ammoniac, and tho phosphoric acid sought for in the calcined 

 prccipitatts, by adding sonic drops of azotic acid, and taking up 

 again by distilled water, in which they add azotate of silver. The 

 following arc the results obtained thus : — 



Phosphate Phosphate 

 Specimens. of dissolved by 



Lime. Acetic Acid. 



Phosphate (pure or calcined) 



powder (bones) 99.20 .... 0.?54 



Bone dust caleinod while 92.00 .... 286 



Rone charcoal fit for refining .. 73 10 .... 0.800 



Hlack residue of leflnery 63.40 .... 0.340 



Opatite of logrozan (Estrama- 

 dura) 9425 .... 0.000 



NoduHs from tho Ardennes .... 06.00 .... 0.000- 



Do. in black dust of commerce . 70.00 .... 0.000 



Do. of the Ardennes calcined ..62.00 .... 0.000 



The opatito had left dissolved by the acid 2C milliemes of oxide 

 of iron. The three following specimens had yielded 34, 2ff, and 

 28 rriilli^ints of oxide of iron and alumina. 



AI. IMoriiio has furtlifr stated that the phosphates of bones are 

 soluble in sellzwator, Eucrato of lime, and iH peat animalized by 

 moans of fermrntalion ; whilst tho natural phosphates which he 

 has examined are insoluble in them. 



• The recommendations of (his Report are adopted. 



