579 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No, 9 



properties which cannot be doubted, proceeding 

 from its precipitating and absorbing action. In 

 general, the matters which contain carbon in a 

 Btate of minute division, are those which most fa- 

 vor the nutrition of plants, because they are most 

 easily changed into carbonic acid, which is dis- 

 eolved in water and absorbed by the plants. 



M. Payen has applied himself to interesting 

 researches upon the use of animal charcoal. This 

 scientific manufacturer has proved that it was to 

 be preferred, in refining sugar, to vegetable char- 

 coal. He had to contend, for a long time, with 

 the prejudices to which custom had given birth; but 

 when he had well established the superiority ot the 

 first over the other, the refiners of the great man- 

 ufacturing cities came to Paris to provide them- 

 selves with carbonized animal matters. This was 

 lor him a motive to connect himself with Mes- 

 sieurs. Salmon and Lupe, in order to devote their 

 labors to this kind of fabrication. Before the for- 

 mation of this establishment, M. Payen had stu- 

 died with care the properties of animal charcoal, 

 and had proved that the discoloring power depend- 

 ed on the state of division of both substances; that 

 the carbon only of the various charcoals acted 

 upon the coloring matters, by uniting with and 

 precipitating them, and that in the refining of su- 

 gar, the action of the animal charcoal was carried 

 equally upon the extractive matters; and that the 

 remains of the refineries of sugar greatly favored 

 the developement of vegetation. 



We will now proceed to the formation and to 

 the properties of annualized charcoal. There 

 have been made a great number o> trials to apply, 

 in the most suitable and useful manner to vegeta- 

 tion, the remains of animal matters, which by 

 reason of their constituent parts, act with most 

 energy in aiding the developement of plants: but 

 among all the men of science, or manufacturers 

 who have attended to this subject, we ought to 

 distinguish Messieurs Salmon, Payen, and Lupe, 

 who have formed, in the plain of Grenelle, an 

 establishment of this kind, which deserves to be 

 encouraged. 



It has been known, for some time, that the dregs 

 or offal remains of the refinery of sugar, composed 

 of animal charcoal, blood, and the extractive or 

 impure parts of the raw sugar, formed an excel- 

 lent manure. 



M. Payen has sought means for bringing into 

 use the bodies of dead animals. In a memoir 

 (for which a prize was awarded by the Society 

 of Agriculture in 1829,) he has demonstrated, by 

 numerous facts, that the greatest possible benefit 

 may be drawn from manures not rotted, and from 

 the remains of animals not putrefied. He has at 

 the same time made known the favorable influence 

 of a fermentation retarded, and proportioned to 

 the developement of vegetation. In this interest- 

 ing memoir, the author has already indicated as 

 one of the means the most fit to reach the end 

 which he proposed, the absorption of soft organic 

 matters, containing azote, (as the blood, the fe- 

 cal matter, intestines, brains, &c.,) by earths dri- 

 ed in a furnace. This important result was the 

 first step to make, to offer to plants animal matters 

 not yet decomposed, in a very minute state of divi- 

 sion. 



. In 1831, M. Salmon, an enlightened manufac- 

 turer, succeeded in uniting in one economical fabri- 

 cation all the useful conditions which can be offer- 



ed by a porous, absorbent, carbonaceous powder, 

 charged as much as possible with organic animal 

 matters. The immense advantage to agriculture 

 to be derived from such a manure, may be ima- 

 gined. M. Payen, hastened to unite his efforts to 

 those of Messieurs. Salmon and Lupe, to accele- 

 rate the developements of a branch of industry 

 which was to have a great influence on agricul- 

 ture. The trials which have been made in va- 

 rious places with this manure, have served to con- 

 firm the previously formed opinions of its efficacy. 

 Animalized charcoal, by reason of its mild and 

 gradual action, may be placed in contact not only 

 with seeds, but also with the herbaceous stems, 

 and the roots of plants; which cannot be done with 

 many other rich manures,as night soil [poudrelte,'] 

 urine, &c. 



It has been remarked in practice, that animal- 

 ized charcoal has less activity in forcing the first de- 

 velopement of stems and leaves than some other 

 manures; but that its action favored fructification 

 much better. Messieurs Briaune and Bella, at 

 Grignon, have observed, that compared with 

 night soil, the product in grain of an equal space 

 manured with animalized charcoal, was one-fifth 

 at least more considerable. This fact has been 

 observed equally in the culture of other cereal 

 plants, and of rape, hemp, flax, clover, beets, tur- 

 nips, &c. It has also been ascertained that grass 

 or fodder crops at the time of mowing, presented 

 an equal increase of product, although sometimes 

 the early movements of vegetation may have been 

 less rapid. Sown upon meadows, artificial and 

 natural, upon crass sod, and upon corn at three 

 or four inches high, animalized charcoal soon pro- 

 duced a deeper shade of green, and a sustained 

 activity of vegetation. We are equally assured 

 that in gardens, culinary vegetables, manured wilh 

 four or five times as much animalized charcoal as 

 in field culture, acquire gradually considerable di- 

 mensions. 



Such are the benefits to be derived, in regard to 

 agriculture, from the use of the carbonaceous ani- 

 malized powder: but its preparation may be also 

 of immense advantage for the salubrity of cities; 

 we do not fear to call the attention of persons 

 charged with their government, to this subject. 

 The contents of privies and sewers, the infected 

 mire, the remains of dead animals, are commonly 

 carried to but a small distance from cities, where 

 they serve to infect the neighborhood. Some- 

 times their complete decomposition does not ar- 

 rive until at, the end of some years; while if they 

 were submitted immediately to the action of the 

 pulverized coally matters, which are fabricated in 

 the establishment of Messieurs Payen, Salmon 

 and Company, the disinfection is instantaneous, 

 and an excellent manure is immediately obtained. 

 We have witnessed that entrails in a state of pu- 

 trefaction, which spread a most offensive odor, 

 have been converted immediately to manure hav- 

 ing no odor. This establishment prepares a suffi- 

 cient quantity of this charcoal to convert to ma- 

 nure a large part of the filth of Paris. We ear- 

 nestly hope, both for the interests of agriculture 

 and of humanity, that similar establishments may 

 rise around all our great cities, to make disappear 

 those hotbeds of infection, which offen bear death 

 and desolation in the midst a numerous popula- 

 tion. 



