SULPHURETTED HYDROGEN. ANIMAL MANURES. Ho 



horse can convert twenty tons of peat into a manure 

 richer and more lasting than stable manure. Dana. 



374. Sulphuretted hydrogen is a nauseously smelling 

 compound of sulphur and hydrogen. It gives its peculiar 

 smell to a rotten egg. When dead fish or fish offal is 

 thrown upon land, it not only diffuses a most offensive 

 smell to a great distance, but it imparts a very disagree 

 able flavor to the crops, and also to the milk and to the 

 butter made from the milk of cows who feed upon such 

 crops. 



375. Hoofs, hair, feathers, skins, wool, and blood, con 

 tain more than 50 per cent, of carbon, and from 13 to 18 

 of nitrogen, besides sulphur, and salts of lime, of soda and 

 of magnesia. They therefore hold the first rank among 

 manures, and, as a long time is required for their decom 

 position, their action may last for seven or eight years. 

 They yield excellent results, made into a compost for 

 potatoes, turnips, or hops, or for meadow land. 



876. Hair, spread upon meadows, augments the crop 

 threefold ; and, the Chinese, who know its value, collect it 

 every time they have their head shaved, and the opera 

 tion is performed once a fortnight, and sell it to the 

 farmers. The crop of hair, from the head of each indi 

 vidual, amounts, in a year, to about half a pound. Every 

 million of persons therefore affords two hundred and fifty 

 tons of hair, that is, of manure of the most valuable kind, 

 since it represents at least two thousand five hundred 

 tons of ordinary barnyard manure, and which might be 

 collected without trouble, but which is now invariably 

 lost. You may calculate what must be the loss for the 

 State, and for the whole United States. 



377. Blood, besides more than 52 per cent, of carbon 

 and 17 per cent, of nitrogen, contains soluble salts, such 



