166 CHEMICAL MANUEES. 



phosphatic peat possesses the properties which recommends it, 

 more particularly for spreading on farmyard dung in stables. The 

 excrements of animals commence to decompose as soon as they 

 are eliminated by the animals, and this decomposition is accom- 

 panied by a great loss in nitrogen. The addition of the phosphoric 

 acid not only retains all the nitrogen in the manure, but also 

 enriches it. It also destroys the germs of infectious disease, typhus, 

 cholera, etc., as the experiments of Fraenkel, Klipstein, and Burow 

 have shown. Klipstein formally declares that phosphatic peat 

 behaves better in this way than sulphated peat, which he had 

 prepared with 10 per cent of sulphuric acid. The manufacture of 

 phosphated peat is very simple. The peat is made to absorb the 

 quantity of hot phosphoric acid diluted to the desired strength. 

 Prepared peat or crude peat may be used. In the latter case, the 

 peat should be passed through a slicing machine and then through 

 a press. This manufacture should be profitable. To obtain the 

 phosphoric acid the most impure phosphates, otherwise of no value, 

 can be used ; moreover, the phosphoric acid absorbed by the peat 

 retains its solubility in water. On the other hand, it should not 

 be very difficult to create a market, for peat has been employed for 

 a long time as litter, as well as other additional matter, gypsum 

 from superphosphates, which is spread in the stables. But there 

 is no substance of this nature which possesses the antiseptic 

 properties of phosphatic peat. It retains the nitrogen, destroys 

 infectious germs, absorbs urine, purifies the air of stables, amplifies 

 and enriches farmyard manure. The use of phosphatic peat for the 

 disinfection of faecal matter constitutes a problem more difficult to 

 solve. The main obstacle is the system of everything to the drain, 

 that all large towns have adopted, to free themselves of their excreta 

 in a radical but far from economical manner. In small localities 

 (there are some in Germany where the use of phosphatic peat is 

 obligatory) its purchase, its use, and the sale of the human manure 

 under the control of the authorities, to prevent fraud, present real 

 difficulties. But in large properties which have the use of the 

 manure in their own hands, the use of phosphatic peat would be very 

 rational in so far as one could then economize the cost of drying. 

 But if it be desired to dry the manure, plant similar to that used to 

 dry poudrette may be used. The manure, consisting of faecal matter 

 and phosphatic peat, after desiccation forms a manure analogous to 

 guano. It does not give off any bad smell, and contains 1 per cent of 

 N, 1-5 per cent P2O- (4 soluble), 1 per cent potash and about 45 per 

 cent of peat. 



