FERTILIZERS. 45 



excretions, with the addition of blood and refuse meat from the slaughter-house, or the carcasses 

 of dead animals. They are usually sold in a dry and pulverized state. 



II. Simple Poudrettes, which consist of the dried, pulverized, solid human excretions. 



III. Humid Poudrettes. These consist usually of the entire contents of the vaults; 

 which, after being deodorized, are left in large tanks for evaporation by mere exposure, or 

 receive additions of gypsum, etc., as absorbers of moisture. 



IV. Compost Poudrettes. The following course is frequently pursued in their manufac 

 ture, the sweepings of the streets, ashes, refuse lime from gas-houses, and various other suit 

 able refuse materials of factories, etc., are screened to remove stones and other worthless 

 materials. The screened mass is subsequently filled in alternate layers with deodorized night- 

 soil, in large tanks containing water-tight floors. These tanks are frequently large enough to 

 store five hundred tons at one time. After the material has been left for from four to five 

 months for a thorough disintegration, it is cut through from the surface to the floor, and 

 thereby thoroughly mixed. The fertilizers Nos. Ill and No. IV are, for economical reasons, 

 best adapted for consumption in the vicinity of the manufacturing establishment, whilst Nos. 

 I and No. JT, on account of their higher value, may enter with good success more distant 

 markets. There is scarcely any other class of commercial fertilizers which is apt to suffer as 

 readily a depreciation in value from careless mangement of its raw material and its mode of 

 manufacture, as the poudrettes. For this reason, they ought to be sold by analysis ; at least 

 with reference to the amount of ammonia, phosphoric acid and potassa. A detailed state 

 ment of these substances gives a somewhat more definite idea regarding the nature of the 

 excretions which served in their manufacture. It needs no particular argument to show the 

 great value of the human excretions in the agricultural industry, as long as those of our 

 domesticated animals are considered most efficient for the manuring of our farm-lands. 



The food of man, as a general rule, is much richer in the most valuable elements for 

 plant-growth than that of our farm live-stock; the same relations are true, for obvious 

 reasons, with regard to the excretions of both. To establish that claim among our farmers 

 requires the manufacture of standard articles of definite chemical and physical properties. 

 It is a fact worthy of notice, that in the most densely -populated countries, the superior efficiency 

 of the human excretions for manurial purposes has been most decidedly recognized. Belgium, 

 like China and Japan, is largely indebted for its high state of cultivation to the extensive use 

 of night-soil as a fertilizer. Prejudice against the more general use of the latter for the 

 reproduction of our garden and farm crops contributes largely to the indifference which still 

 prevails among many agriculturists regarding the magnitude of the pecuniary interests 

 involved in the question of securing the human excretion in the most advantageous form for 

 agricultural purposes. The same indifferent management which characterizes quite frequently 

 the treatment of the barn manure causes usually a most serious depreciation of the contents 

 of the vaults. The wasteful practice adopted in our large cities with regard to the disposi 

 tion of the human excretion is not unfrequently the outgrowth of considerations which have 

 largely lost their importance in consequence of the accumulated experience elsewhere. An 

 intelligent solution of the sewage question in our large cities touches the pecuniary interest 

 of every farmer. However intricate the various considerations which deserve careful atten 

 tion may render the problem, the sewage question cannot be considered satisfactorily settled 

 without a due recognition of the agricultural interests of the country.&quot; 

 &amp;gt; A noted agriculturist has said that the waste from the kitchen and the contents of the 

 water-closet, if properly composted, would be of greater value than the same amount of 

 many of the commercial fertilizers that are bought at a high figure by our farmers. 



Says Liebig: &quot; If we admit that the liquid and solid excrements of man amount on an 

 average to 547 pounds in a year, which contain 16.41 pounds of nitrogen, this is much more 

 than is necessary to add to an acre of land in order to obtain, with the assistance of the 

 nitrogen derived from the atmosphere, the richest possible crop every year.&quot; 



