304 



Waste Manures. 



Vol. IX. 



the evening; both of which, according to 

 her view of the question, were equally un- 

 necessary as pepper and mustard. — Cham- 

 bers, 



Waste Manures. 



Norwicli, Conn., June 29, 1844. 



Sir : I have been much interested in the 

 examination of your able and very valuable 

 report for 1843, the first that has fallen into 

 my hands. By its perusal, I am the more 

 convinced of the importance of close observa- 

 tion, investigation, and comparison of facts, 

 in all the occupations of life. I see you have 

 given much attention to manures; and, al- 

 though my business is bleaching and finish- 

 ing cotton goods, and more immediately con- 

 nected with manufacturing, yet I have al- 

 ways felt a deep interest in agriculture and 

 horticulture; and, like thousands of others 

 engaged in other pursuits, am looking for- 

 ward to the time to retire from other busi- 

 ness, and engage it. Hoping that my pre- 

 sent business may render some service to 

 the tiller of the soil, I call your attention to 

 the following facts. 



In bleaching cotton goods, we boil them in 

 lime — about one cask to three tons of goods; 

 this we do to extract or kill the vegetable 

 and other oils got into them in the process of 

 manufacturing. They are again boiled in 

 one hundred and fifty to one hundred and 

 eighty pounds crude soda (or soda ash, as it 

 is called in market) to the three tons of 

 goods, for ten or twelve hours ; then the 

 spent lye is drawn off as before. Now the 

 most, if not all bleachers, make little or no 

 use of this spent lye. Supposing that a 

 liquid so highly charged with alkali, vegeta- 

 ble, and other matter from the cotton goods, 

 would be worth something for manure, I 

 have a pit dug of about eight hundred squal*e 

 feet, and three to four feet deep; filled it 

 about half full of soil, into which I have run 

 all the spent lye from both ash and lime boil, 

 until it has become fully impregnated; so 

 that, in digging it over, it smells very much 

 like hog-manure. 



I have had no time or opportunity to try 

 its effect on different kinds of soil ; neither 

 have I found any person engaged in agricul- 

 ture, who was willing to make a fair trial of 

 it. The only trial I have ever seen, of any 

 kind, was on a small lot, three-quarters of an 

 acre, elevated, gravelly land, and somewhat 

 arid soil. The lot was divided between three 

 tenants, for a garden, equally. The first 

 manured his portion with barn-yard ma- 

 nure ; the second, who had the middle gar- 

 den, used the soil impregnated with spent 

 lye; the third used little or no manure of 



any kind. The season was very dry; the 

 gardens of the first and third suffered se- 

 verely — so much so, as hardly to pay for 

 cultivating. A cornfield, on the same kind 

 of soil, near by, was very much injured; 

 while the garden manured with the impreg- 

 nated soil did not suffer any. Vegetation did 

 not progress as rapidly as on the other lot, 

 yet the growth was healthy. Sweet corn, 

 which mostly covered the second lot, was of 

 a deep green; the leaf did not roll, and 

 showed no sign of being affected by the 

 drought; it furnished a fair return of green 

 sweet corn, until cut off by the frost in Oc- 

 tober. 



What would be the effect on diflTerent soils, 

 or in different modes of applying it, I have 

 no means of judging; but should take plea- 

 sure in furnishing any person who would 

 make a fair trial of it, without charge. If it 

 has value as a manure, it is important to be 

 known, as a large quantity can be furnished 

 in New England at small expense. I hav6 

 made an estimate, from my knowledge of 

 the bleaching business in New England, 

 and am confident that I am safe in say- 

 ing that there is more than six thousand 

 five hundred casks of lime used yearly in 

 bleaching cotton goods alone, and a much 

 larger quantity is used by the paper-makers 

 in bleaching rags; that the bleachers of cot- 

 ton goods in New England use more than 

 one million two hundred and fifty thousand 

 pounds of crude soda, or soda ash, yearly ; 

 the spent lye of which I think almost all is 

 wasted. 



One word about so<ia ash. It has very 

 generally taken the place of potashes. I 

 think it was introduced among bleachers in 

 this country in 1835, by James Lee, Esq., of 

 New York; since which time it has also 

 been largely introduced into use among 

 glass-makers and soap-makers. As it is an 

 imported article, I should think it worth the 

 effort to learn the mode and cost of produc- 

 tion. 



Please excuse me for drawing so largely 

 on your time and attention ; and believe me, 

 yours, very truly, 



Moses Pierce. 



Hon. H. L. Ellsworth. 



Grafting the Chestni;t on the Oak. — 



In the department of the Correze, an oak, 

 engrafted eight years ago with the chestnut, 

 has produced at length, chestnuts of good 

 quality. The success of the experiment is 

 deemed important for extensive districts 

 where the oak flourishes, and the chestnut 

 is barren, and where the fruit is needed for 

 food. 



