94 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
der, fermented with wood ashes, (unleached,) or the prepared superphos- 
phates made in the market, or by the farmer himself. 
SUGAR-HOUSE REFUSE. 
A sample of this material, sent by Dr. William S. Robinson, of Hat- 
- borough, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, contained, by analysis: 
WALED. ...-.- asses ecw es nacens e-em ae ee ee cee eee pew e en cee wne ce cene can sncnns 8.03 
BOM ANIG MALL - aise ee teeta nian ee eo ones sesepe Vnaweretee a5 =<6 <> ene 
Phisphate of litle -.SeAgisseissas-+ 2... be seeens ae bawe sheees Js <3 San See 5. 09 
Solphate of Tips op oete see hs ane bn nace inns teehes odd baaenss aw ses seen ees 
SWIC, (INSOMNDIO) eee eee re ao EE pews esos ce scape wk oes seco eek 5. 09 
Alumina, oxide of iron, and small amounts of alkaline salts ....-.........-... 3. 00 
’ 
100. 00 
= 
The mass consists of the waste of sugar while being filtered, and 
besitles the uncrystallizable debris it contains some of the materials of 
the filters and the clarifiers. It isa material much used as a manure by 
the farmers of the vicinity of Philadelphia. From six to seven tons 
are applied to the acre, and good crops of grain or grass result. The 
mineral ingredients are useful, though in smail amount, and the organic 
matter is largely of a soluble nature, yielding also a smail amount of 
nitrogen. Being of a gummy and saccharine nature it is much less val- 
uable as manure than a similar amount of fibrous vegetable matter. 
Bat as its cost is very low, (less than $2 per ton,) it is a valuable ingre- 
dient for a compost, to be made within a small distance from the supply. 
Sugar-house waste is generally stated to be the waste bone-black ot 
the sugar-refining process, accoinpanied by the impurities and scum of 
the sugar while in the fluid condition. Whatever materials may have 
been used in the process of refining will, of course, be found in waste, 
such as blood, gine, size, plaster, or powdered quick-lime. It is stated 
that it often contains from one-fifth to one-fourth of its weight of blood, 
and is therefore considered from four to six times more powerful than 
animal charcoal alone. Where these matters are abundant the propor- 
tion of carbonized bone-ash must be correspondingly deficient, and 
hence it is that the material may have very different compositions and 
values. In Browne’s Field Book of Manures, New York, 1856, two 
analyses of the refuse are given, and are here appended: 
/ No.1, NGi2: 
CRN oer ee chek yo ae sass ee SEE ee Sort a2 ay Soe 3 12 
Phosphates, and carbonates of lime and magnesia......-. ------.--------- 62.25 65 
Sugar, and organic coloring matter, with isinglass....-..--.-....-..----- 235 10 
PME es SORE Sa cathe 6a ~ das awatoe tm dealweeteEees wed wiceda dacs ae 1.40 13 
100.00 100 
=— 
In these the bone-black is the most abundant ingredient, and the value 
of the article depends on the phosphate of lime it contains; but in the 
samples from the refinery, at Philadelphia, the bone-earth is the least 
ingredient, and the phosphate of line is small in amount. The blood 
element also is small, as is shown by the small percentage of nitrogen 
which it affords. It is chiefly composed of unburned bone, charcoal, 
with a large amount of waste organic matter, and uncrystallizable sugar, 
and it cannot make a valuable material fer composting with other sub- 
stances, either animal or vegetable, to form a valuable and expensive 
inanure. 
* Containing nitrogen 1.355 per cent, = L63 per cent. of ammonia. 
