302 FIBROUS RESIDUES 



just far enough to leave Nature her appropriate share of the work. As, however, 

 wool, leather, hair, silk, and the like, are not rich in phosphatic salts, an admixture 

 of these, whether in the form of bone-ash, bone, or coprolitic superphosphate Kourin 

 Mouria guano, or the like, improves the manure ; producing, in faet, a fertilising 

 compost, which for general use loaves nothing to bo desired. Of course, for soils 

 specially deficient in any particular ingredient, and for crops requiring a more than 

 average supply of some one element, special additions are made to the manure ; 

 which become thus turnip manure, cereal manure, bean manure, &c., as desired. 



1 Another property may also be mentioned here, as giving to this manure, in one 

 particular, a considerable advantage over guano. It is that whereas guano is liable, 

 while in store, to undergo spontaneous decomposition, whence arises the loss of much 

 volatile alkali, the new wool-product, on the contrary, manifests no such tendency, 

 but remains perfectly stable at all ordinary temperatures and in all states of the 

 weather, an advantage which it doubtless owes to the high temperature at which it 

 is made. This manure may, therefore, be warehoused for any length of time, and 

 during any climatic vicissitudes to which it may be exposed cither at homo or in 

 tropical regions. 



' This product is distinguished in commerce as " Ulmato of Ammonia," a name 

 which, though not perhaps strictly correct, serves to indicate two of its most notable 

 constituents acid and alkaline in the combination which they really affect. 



' Its analysis, by Professor Voelcker, of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, 

 is subjoined : 



Moisture H'o9 



Organic matter l 73-89 



Ammonia in state of ulmate 2'05 



Oxides of iron and alumina and phosphoric acid . . 2-52 



Carbonate of lime 2-22 



Alkalis and magnesia ....... 1*26 



Insoluble siliceous matter 6'47 



100-00 



' The relative proportion of the manurial and fibrous products resulting from the 

 working of this process varies, of course, with the nature of the materials treated. 

 Some mixed debris are rich in vegetal, others in animal, fibre. Average mixed rags, 

 however, contain these ingredients in pretty equal proportions ; and in all cases the 

 sum of the weights of the two products, fibrous and pulverulent, equals the weight of 

 the raw materials, so that the process involves no waste. 



'The pecuniary profit of the operation is liable, of course, to vary from time to 

 time with the cost price of the raw material, and labour employed, and the selling 

 price of the products, as also with the varying activity of trade, and the intervals of 

 commercial depression. On this point it may suffice to observe that a process founded 

 on correct principles, and yielding, under skilful conduct, good chemical results, is 

 generally found to succeed also, on the average, as a commercial enterprise, if it 1 .-. 

 soundly and vigorously administered. The new manufacture is carried on at large 

 works, built expressly for the purpose, on the left bank of the Thames, at (lray>. 

 Essex, where machinery, adequate to treat about 12 tons of rags per diem, lias U-e:i 

 fitted up. A large paper-mill has also been erected on the opposite side of the river, 

 at Dartford, to convert the fibrous product into paper. The ulmate is for the most 

 part sold to manure manufacturers, who use it as the nitrogenous ingredient of their 

 several fertilising composts. It is, therefore, employed by many farmers who are not 

 aware of the fact. 



' With reference to the origination of this process, the separability of animal from 

 vegetal matters by the peculiar means indicated above, first occurred to the exhibitor, 

 and was communicated by him to his friend Captain Wynants during the course of 

 experiments carried on by them jointly for the attainment of a different end, viz. the 

 total reduction to manure of certain forms of waste. The modified design thus 

 originated was worked out by both conjointly; and it is the wish of the associates 

 that any credit which an indulgent appreciation may connect with its success should 

 be understood as attaching equally to both. Their highest ambition as to this pro- 

 cess will be satisfied should the means employed therein be regarded as simple and 

 cheap, yet efficacious to their appointed end ; that end being the recovery, from 



1 Containinp 



Nitrogen 10-24 



Corresponding to ammonia 12-43 



Total quantity of nitrogen 11-03 



Corresponding to ammonia 14-48 





