221: ARTIFICIAL MANURE. 



their yaras and hog-pens with meadow mud, which has thus 

 become saturated with ammonia, have in nowise lost their 

 reward. If they have been satisfied with their practice, per- 

 haps they will be no less firm in their belief of success, when 

 science offers them a reason for the faith that is in them. 



Peat or turf has begun to excite attention in France, as a 

 manure in itself, and not simply as a vehicle for supplying 

 ammoniacal salts (206). Soubeiran, in his prize essay on 

 manures, &c., in 1847, says, that from his own experiments 

 he can find no dift'erence between the humus of mould and 

 turf; he asserts that it is equally fit for encouraging vegeta- 

 tion, and '' If we consider the service which humus spread on 

 land renders to vegetation, we must regret that turf, which is 

 so abundant in certain localities, should not be more fre- 

 quently employed as an adjunct toother manures. Suitably 

 modified by air and alkalies, it would incontestibly render 

 important services to agriculture." Fresh turf when mixed 

 with ^ its weight of dried flesh, Soubeiran found was slowly 

 decomposed, forming with turf a compound similar to fer- 

 menting dung. 



Peat or turf has been used in France as a convenient sub- 

 stance when in dry powder, to absorb solutions of ammonia- 

 cal salts, thereby reducing that to a state approaching pou- 

 drette. For this purpose M. Jacquemart, in 1843, compared 

 such prepared turf powder with poudrette, using such quan- 

 tity that each should represent the same amount of nitrogen, 

 or its equivalent ammoniacal vsalts. The poudrette contained 

 in 3 bushels, or 132 lbs., nitrogen equivalent to 9| lbs. sul- 

 phate of ammonia crystals. Of the nitrogen, 53 per cent, 

 existed as ready formed carbonate of ammonia, and 47 per 

 cent, as part of the organic matter of the night-soil. 



This poudrette, used at the rate of 25 bushels per acre, 

 represented therefore 82 lbs. of crystals of sulphate of am- 



