160 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



seriously affect the character and chemical composition of 

 the waste or by-products, it becomes necessary to repeat 

 from time to time analyses of many of these products. 

 These analyses are made without any charge for the work, 

 on the condition that the results are public property, if 

 deemed of interest for publication. 



As a brief enumeration of the more prominent substances 

 sent on for our investigation during the year 1895 can best 

 convey a correct idea concerning the extent and importance 

 of the labor involved, the following statement is presented : 

 the whole number of analyses made in the stated connection 

 amounts for the year 1895 to one hundred and eighty-six ; 

 of these, from eighty to ninety consisted of ashes, including 

 wood ashes, coal ashes, lime-kiln ashes, cotton-hull ashes, 

 swill ashes, soots, etc. ; from twenty to thirty were agri- 

 cultural chemicals, comprising potash salts. Chili saltpetre, 

 sulphate of ammonium, gypsum, kainites, dissolved bone- 

 black, phosphatic slag, etc. ; twenty-eight were animal 

 refuse materials, as fish waste, tankage, blood, animal meal, 

 meat scraps, blood and bone, bones, wool waste, sheep 

 fertilizer, etc. ; and from twenty to thirty consisted of 

 vegetable refuse materials, as cotton-factory waste, cotton- 

 seed meal, tobacco stems, madder, peats, vegetable com- 

 post, etc. 



Of a special interest is the recent introduction of the 

 products prepared from the kitchen refuse of our large 

 cities. Sanitary considerations are indirectly the cause of 

 the appearance of these products, which promise to become 

 of considerable prominence in the future. 



One mode disposes of the refuse by cremation. The 

 product resulting is called cremation ashes, and contains a 

 liberal amount of phosphate of lime and more or less potash. 

 The nitrogen and organic matter are lost in the process of 

 cremation. Grinding and proper mixing of the products 

 cannot fail to furnish a valuable material for manurial 

 purposes. The tabular statement below gives the results 

 of analyses of swill or cremation ashes, mostly if not entirely 

 from Lowell, Mass. 



Another mode proposes to save the nitrogen and organic 

 matter by a so-called reduction process. The parties in- 



