280 



A good manure may be made from bones vritbout forming a super- 

 ])ho8phate, by dissolving tbe animal matter of the bone by means of al- 

 kaline leys, and thus freeing tlio bone earth, which is then in exeessively 

 tine particles lit to be dissolved in the waters in the soil. Many recipes 

 have been given for this. Br. ^^icliols, in his Boston Journal of Chem- 

 istry, (February, 1S(39,) gives the following, wliich he recommends : Take 

 a barrel of tine-ground bone and a barrel of good wood ashes ; mix well 

 together and add three pailfuls of water; mix the whole intimately, 

 stirring daily ; the mass will be tit for use in a week. This is a good 

 manure for corn, ii gill being used to the hill. In this fertilizer tliere is, 

 as stated, no superi)hosphate found ; the bone earth is merely sepa- 

 rated from the hard gelatine or animal matter, which is dissolved by 

 the potash of the vrood ashes ; this organic matter is in a soluble state, 

 the bone earth is tinely divided, and tliere are present the potash and 

 other mineral salts of the wood ash, all of which make a most valuable 

 fertilizer. 



The South Carolina phosphates may be treated in a manner similar to 

 bone ash of the refinery, with vitriol, but will not make so valuable a 

 maniire, because the amount of phosphate of lime present is not nearly- 

 so great as in boue ash ; it rarely exceeds the quantity in bone dust, 

 and has 10 to 20 per cent, useless matter present. Carolina phosphates^ 

 v.t $30 a ton will not make a richer fertilizer than raw bone at *45 a ton. 



T. A. 



THE ALVARADO BEET SUGAR FACTORY. 



A company was organized some time ago in California for the pur- 

 pose of manufacturing sugar from beets, it having been demonstrated 

 that the c limate of the State is well adapted to the development of 

 saccharine matter in the l>exit. With a capital of $250,000 the company- 

 began its operations at Alvarado, a town about twenty miles south of 

 San Francisco. The factory is already in a forward state of construc- 

 tion, and the re^juisite machinery, of elaborate and finished character, is 

 being made in San Francisco. The building is large and commodious, 

 requiring for its construction 78,000 feet of lumber. The following ma- 

 chinery and apparatus will be used in the factory: Four tubular boil- 

 ers, each 54 inches in diameter and 16 feet long, with steam and mud 

 drums, all comi)lete, and embracing everything in the way of tlie latest 

 improvements; two engines, 14 by 30, of first-class finish; one small 

 engine, 16 by 12 ; one vacuum pan and two air pumps, four saturation 

 Xnins, five filters, two filter pumps, one beet grater, one beet breaking 

 machine, one beet washing machine, three mortejus, (tanks in which su- 

 gar and sirup are elevated from one flooK to another,) also, a number 

 of large sheet-iron tanks for various purposes about the works. In ad- 

 dition to these is a multitude of shafting, pulleys, pii)es, pumps, and 

 various fittings incidental to a complete sugar manufacturing and re- 

 fining establishment, capable of working up fifty tons of beets ])er day.. 



The factory will be ready to go into operation about the first of Sep- 

 tember next, or as soon as the beet crop comes in. It is the intention of 

 the company to depend chiefly for their stock of beets upon the neigh 

 boring farmers, who will receive a fair price per ton for them, delivered 

 at the factory. 



The oj>erations of the work will be under the immediate supervision of 

 gentlemen of experience, who were, indeed, for a long time engaged in 



