ANALYSIS OF MANURES. 363 



according to the honesty of the manufacturer, is ranked with 

 guano, but next to night-soil. The value of poudret depends 

 on whether the ammonia is lost or saved. " K night-soil be 

 mixed with sulphate or muriate of lime before drying, the 

 volatile carbonate of ammonia will be changed into sulphate 

 of ammonia and sal ammoniac. Thus, not only the most 

 valuable portion of night-soil will be retained, but the salts 

 of lime will be much increased. The mixture will be per- 

 fectly inoffensive, and allowing ground-peat and plastic, with 

 the other salts, to form one-half of the dry mixture, there is 

 then in every 100 lbs. fertilizing proportions equal to 200 lbs. 

 of the moist hiunan excrement ; and the value of good poudret 

 is, as compared with cow-dung, as 14 to 1. Another kind of 

 poudret is prepared in France by boiling the offal of the 

 slaughter-house by steam into a thick soup, and mixing the 

 whole into a stiff paste "uith sifted coal-ashes, and cbying it. 

 But perhaps soot is the most powerful of all manures. Its 

 analysis is as under : — 



Geine 30-70 



:Mtrogen 20-00 



Salts of lime, mostly chalk . . . . 25-31 



Bone-dust 1*50 



Salts of potash and soda, and ammonia 6-14 



Carbon 3-85 



Water 12-50 



100-00 



The salts, therefore, in 100 lbs. of soot, are equal to a ton 

 of cow-dung. But among the subjects of regret to all who 

 give themselves the trouble of thinking about such matters, 

 that of wasting the liquid evacuations of animals is perhaps 

 the most remarkable. The salts therein contained are beyond 

 measure valuable ; yet how rarely are they appropriated ! how 

 common is it for this and the drainings of the dung-yard to 

 run to waste ! Let us look a little to their composition and 

 to their fertilizing qualities, and compare them with the ana- 

 lyses we have already quoted. We shall still keep to the 

 authority of the " Muck ISIanual," the most useful work that 

 has emanated from the press on the subject. 



That of the cow contains — 



