58 On Improving the Quantity and Quality of Manure. Vol. IV. 



with the operations of the farmer, as those of 

 a tanner, or any other profession. Here there 

 are reasons why farmers should be acquainted 

 with the sciences and the laws by whicli na- 

 ture controls every thing that they do. 

 This is our apology for requesting you to 

 make yourselves acquainted with the sci- 

 ences. 



We shall now present to you a process in- 

 volving the principles of chemistry, that if 

 judiciously carried out, we think, will prove 

 very favorable to your prospects. 



There is no better established agricultural 

 truth, than that the alkalies, potash and soda, 

 are useful manures. Every one knows that 

 where wood ashes are sowed on grass land, 

 the crop is improved ; but the impossibility of 

 getting as much wood ash, which you know 

 contains potash, as would manure a large por- 

 tion of land, and at a price that the produce 

 would warrant, is impossible. In the next 

 place the caustic nature of potash and soda as 

 manure is so great that it is necessary to seek 

 out some safe and economical way of applying 

 them, by forming combinations with other 

 substances applicable to manure, and thereby 

 provide a safe and wholesome nutriment for 

 vegetable life. 



For this purpose we recommend to your at- 

 tention the use of soda, an alkali that can be 

 procured from various substances, and in 

 great quantities, and as the demand increases 

 there is a probability that, by improved pro- 

 cess, the price will be reduced. At present 

 it can be got at from three dollars and fifty 

 cents to four dollars per 100 lbs. 



By mixing soda with a portion of fresh 

 burnt lime it is rendered caustic, and by boil- 

 ing in the ley that is taken from this mixture 

 of fresh lime and soda, all kinds of garbage, 

 flesh, fish, hair, woollen rags, &c., these sub- 

 stances will be reduced to a saponaceous mat- 

 ter ; all the fatty matter that is in bones 

 will be brought out of them and converted 

 into soap, and the whitened bone bo prepared 

 to be ground up for manure, or used in some 

 branch of manufacture. By mixing this soap 

 with straw, grass, every kind of vegetable 

 matter, marsh earth, and all other decomposa- 

 ble substances, tlie quantity and quality of 

 manure can be increased to an astonisliing 

 amount. There are applicable to this pur- 

 pose many things that are now lost ; such as 

 the sturgeon tiiat abounds in the Hudson and 

 Delaware rivers, tliat now, when tak(m by 

 the shad and iierring tishorios, are thrown 

 away to stink on tiie shore ; all the garbage 

 that is produced by the fishers, the blood and 

 garbage of the butchers' shambles, in short all 

 the offal that now is thrown on the dung heap, 

 where ninety per cent, passes off in vapor, or 

 the whole is thrown into and carried away by 

 the river. 



By combining the decaying elements we 

 have been speaking of, with soda or potash, 

 their volatility is prevented, while at the same 

 time their decomposition is promoted, and they 

 are brought into the state that fits them for sup- 

 porting vegetable life. In many points there 

 exist between vegetable and animal organi- 

 zation striking similarities in their functions, 

 and in some points they are the same. The 

 fine fibres, of the roots of plants and the ab- 

 sorbent organs of animals both take up from de- 

 composed substances the nourishment that the 

 animal or vegetable requires; but these two 

 modifications of life differ in their preparatory 

 powers; animals being endowed with the power 

 of digestion, they decompose in their stomac.'is 

 the substances from which they are to extract 

 their nutriment ; vegetables, on the other 

 hand, depend for their support on mo^tter that 

 has undergone decomposition by processes 

 entirely uninfluenced by themselves; and 

 what in the one is performed by the stomach, 

 is for the other done in the rot heap, and our 

 object is to have this decomposing procefs 

 performed in the most expeditious manner, 

 under circumstances calculated to retain as 

 far as possible the elements that form the 

 food of vegetables, and to render as much 

 matter as possible available for vegetable nu- 

 triment, for the purpose of feeding those 

 plants which are necessary to supply the 

 wants of man. 



This is an important subject and merits the 

 attention of men of the highest acquirements 

 in science and philosophy: powers which we 

 have not the fortune to be gifted with, but we 

 must earnestly hope the subject will be taken 

 up by fcome master mind. 



Before closing, permit us to remark, that 

 if the practice we are calling your attention 

 to is carried into extensive effect, it would 

 not only benefit agriculture, but afford the 

 means of improving other branches of busi- 

 ness. 



In putting up salmon, herring and all kinds 

 offish, tlie heads and fins might be cut ofl' 

 and employed with the other oflals in making 

 agricultural soap, and thus a barrel of fisli so 

 treated would contain more valuable food, 

 with a saving of expense on the barrel, cost of 

 transportation. The waste made at the cod 

 and other fislieries might be turned to valua- 

 ble account, and the preparations of this aj>Ti- 

 cultural .^oap would form employment for 

 regular establislimeuts, and make a new, 

 useful and valuable branch of business. J. R. 

 — Letlger. 



J\'V)/o-.— Soda is manufactured by Messrs. Dupont, of 

 lUaiidywiiir. Dilaware. 



Soila, for tlic purpose propospd in this essay, would 

 not require to Ixj relincd. 



'J'liere is a variety of soda called " soda ash," thai 

 is an impure article, that might answer for this agti 

 cultural purpose. 



