Miscellaneous Results from the Laboratory. 615 



sumed that the whole phosphoric acid of the food finds an exit in the 

 case of this animal by the solid excrements and the milk. Be this as it 

 may, the quantity of the acid in liquid manure is very small, and in the 

 use of tank-water it should never be forgotten that such is the case. 



Again, as might be expected, the proportion of silica in the urine is 

 equally minute ; this substance being necessarily in great part removed 

 from the body in the dung. 



1000 gallons of undiluted tank-water will, according to the above ana- 

 lysis, contain about — 



Ammonia 51 lbs.* 



Potash 53 „ 



Phosphoric Acid, and Magnesia, each ... 1 „ 



The other substances it is unnecessary to calculate. 



The foregoing analysis has not been given as a correct statement of the 

 ingredients of urine, but as a guide to the practical composition of tank- 

 water, supposing it to be collected without dilution, and carefully pre- 

 served. 



Refuse Manures. — The different manufacturing processes carried on in 

 large towns give rise to certain waste products, which, some of them being 

 of animal origin, and others containing one or more of the mineral ingre- 

 dients considered indispensable to growing crops, will possess some value 

 as manures. Advantage may frequently be taken of local circumstances 

 to procure in this way a supply of particular manuring substances, at a 

 cheaper rate than from any other source. Whilst, however, I believe 

 that these refuse manures may be occasionally most valuable adjuncts to 

 the ordinary resources of the farm, I feel convinced that their purchase is 

 often a source of loss and disappointment, owing partly to mistaken ideas 

 of their composition and value, and partly to the great variability of 

 those which may at times be well worthy the farmer's notice. In the 

 purchase of manures of this description one circumstance is often over- 

 looked; namely, the expense of their conveyance. Waste manures are 

 usually cheap, that is to say, low priced; and though they may really be 

 economical when they are to be had within a few miles of home, they 

 will seldom bear the cost of transportation. This truth must be obvious 

 to all. It costs as much to convey a ton weight 50 miles, when its value 

 is 1/., as when it is 10/. ; but in the one case the price is doubled, in the 

 other increased only by 1-lOth. Nor is the matter mended when the 

 expense of carriage is nominally taken by the dealer, for the farmer may 

 be assured that one way or the other it becomes chargeable upon the 

 manure. 



Having offered these few remarks in reference to the value of refuse 

 substances in general, under the conviction that their importance in an 

 agricultural point of view is often overrated, I shall proceed to give the 

 analyses of two or three of these which have come under my attention. 



Scutch. — A substance accumulates in the yards of the glue-maker and 

 fellmonger, to which the above name is given. It is in general a mixture 

 of hair and other animal matters with lime, partly as carbonate and partly 

 in the caustic state. It has a smell, which is more or less offensive ac- 

 cording to the time it has lain decomposing, and bears a price in propor- 

 tion to its age. t 



* The above will furnish the data for regulating the quantity of gypsum to be em- 

 ployed in a tank where this substance is used to fix (he ammonia. 17 parts of ammonia 

 require 86 parts of pure gypsum,- 51 lbs. therefore (the quantity in 1000 gallons) will 

 require 258 lbs, of the salt — in practice about 3 cwt. to 1000 gallons. 



f For many years, indeed as long as I could prociare it, I used Scutch for agri- 

 cultural purposes extensively. I procured it immediately from the yard of the glue- 



2 s 2 



