228 ' ARTIFICIAL MANURE. 



No ammoniacal salt, according to Kuhlmann, acts till reduced 

 to that state. Fermentation has such eifecfc. Hence, car- 

 bonate of ammonia, mixed with charcoal powder, had the 

 same good effects as when mixed with over-dried peat. 

 With this view the cinders and sparks collected by locomo- 

 tive engines may be mixed into a dry powder with gas liquor. 

 So may be used also charred saw-dust, and spent tan. But, 

 it will be observed that, by the mode recommended in this 

 work, the active power of peat is intended to be preserved. 

 It differs from the " peat charcoal" movement of the day in 

 this point. That makes vault poudrette ; this, gas poudrette. 



Composts may be formed without peat or stable-manure. 

 That substance being omitted, speedy decay and rapid fer- 

 mentation may be induced in all straws, green twigs, weeds, 

 and green vegetable matter of all kinds, by piling them up, 

 moistening the heap with a solution of organic matter in the 

 state of decay, and adding various salts. A rich and valu- 

 able manure may be thus speedily prepared, if certain pre- 

 cautions are observed to retain the volatile ammonia, the 

 product of fermentation (100) by converting it into fixed 

 salts. 



The rapid decay in all such composts depends upon the 

 same principle as the fermentation of dough, viz., the addi- 

 tion of some body, as yeast, actually undergoing chemical 

 change. This change communicates motion to the particles 

 of the whole mass which thus act by induced fermentation. 



A process of making manure on this principle was origi- 

 nally proposed by Jauffret, in France. Variously modified, 

 it has been used both there and in other countries with signal 

 success. Manure made by his original recipe costs more 

 than stable-dung, but the following, based on the principle 

 above stated, forms an economic manure. The quantity of 

 the materials are intended for manuring one acre : 



