FARMERS' REGISTER— NEW MINERAL MANURES, &c. 



539 



of your consideration, and deserves a notice in the 

 reports which you will address to the government 

 in favor of commerce and agriculture; and it is 

 in this hope, that I have the honor of laying it be- 

 fore you. 



Before developing this proposition, I think it in- 

 dispensable, inasmuch as the effects of this ma- 

 nure are little known, to give you not only an idea 

 of its iertiiizing qualities, but also a description of 

 all the substances of which it is composed, in order 

 that those among you,Avhoby their agricultural 

 knowledge, are capable of appreciating the great 

 advantages which, if its use should become gene- 

 ral, agriculture will derive from the employment 

 of this sulistance, acting at once as a manure and 

 improver of the constitution of the soil, [amende- 

 ment,] advantages which ought to merit for it the 

 preference over the ashes of Holland, a foreign 

 production. 



If I had devoted myself to the investigation of 

 this manure principally v/ith the view of deriving 

 private emolument from it, I should, in rendering 

 my process public, be guilty of an indiscretion 

 which might profit those who would take advan- 

 tage of it without my knowledge; but the only 

 desire which animates me, is to see agriculture 

 })romptly reap the advantages of my discovery. 



Since obtaining my patent, I have not ceased in 

 prosecuting my researches, to bestow my atten- 

 tion on the means of perfecting this manure, and 

 that oliject, I think, has been attained. 



As I announced in a letter addressed to the agri- 

 culturists of the provinces of Liege, Namur, and 

 Hainault,-in the Journal d' y/griculture des Pays- 

 Bas, for April last, this manure has for its base a 

 salt similar to tiiat which the ashes of Holland 

 contain, or rather the same, and for recipient, sub- 

 stances known to be valuable as permanent im- 

 provers of soils. 



These substances are ; calcareous rock reduced 

 to powder, marl and lerre-hoiiille, mixed in equal 

 proportions, and moistened and worked up after- 

 wards with water in which there has been dissolv- 

 ed sea-salt, in the proportion of five per cent of the 

 weight of the matters composing this manure. 



These ingredients after having been well worked 

 up, ar&made into bricks, which, after being burnt, 

 on exposure to the air if they have been loell mana- 

 ged, fall into powder in the same manner as lime 

 when slaked, and offer to the sight, touch and taste, 

 whitish, light, and alkaline ashes. 



During the burning of these bricks, which must 

 necessarily be done with pit- coal, the sea-salt is 

 more or less decomposed, and is converted into 

 sub-carbonate of soda, which constitutes the base of 

 this manure. 



You conceive, gentlemen, that to manage this 

 manure in the manner indicated, and to advantage, 

 it is desirable to be in a country where coal, 

 [houille,'] coal earth, (terre-houille,) calcareous 

 rock, and marl, are al)undant; however, for want 

 of marl, its place may be supplied with mud irom 

 ponds, or the bottoms of canals, and even with light 

 earth of a clayey nature. In places without terre- 

 houille, and where peat abounds, this may be sub- 

 stituted. 



The presence of these combustible matters, 

 besides their iertiiizing pro()ertics, contributes 

 powerfully to the calcining and burning of the suli- 

 stances with which they are combined under the 



form of bricks, and to their conversion into ashes ; 

 in this respect they are of a double utility. 



So far we see tliat this manure is composed of a 

 salt analogous to that contained by the peat ashes 

 of Holland, and of substances acknowledged to be 

 good miprovers of the constitution of soils, to wit, 

 of lime, ashes, dead-coal (terre-houille,) and of 

 marl, which is rendered more fertilizing by the 

 effect of fire. This however is not all; and al- 

 though in this state even, agricultui-e might derive 

 great advantages from 'it, another substance not 

 less fertilizing than the foregoing constitutes a 

 fourth part in the composition of this manure : but 

 before speaking of this, we must say something 

 farther of the others. 



The effects of the ashes of Holland, are to be at- 

 tributed solely to the action of thesM6 carbonate of 

 soda, which they contain. The presence of this 

 salt is manifest in my manure and constitutes its 

 base. 



If the use of chalk, of marl, and of the ashes of 

 coal-eai'th, produces good effects as a manure, how 

 can we refuse to admit that the union of these 

 same substances joined with a salt analogous to 

 that contained in the ashes of Holland, ought ne- 

 cessarily and by stronger imjdication to unite 

 great advantages. Such is my manure. The use 

 of the ashes of terre-houille is scarcely known ex- 

 cept in the countries where this substance serves 

 as fuel to the inhabitants, who are also accustomed 

 to mix these ashes Avith lime and with vegetable 

 and animal matters to improve their fields and 

 meadows, and they frequently, even use the ashes 

 alone with success. 



Before the introduction of the ashes of Holland 

 into Belgium, which occurred in 1731, the use of 

 the ashes oi' terre-houille was more general. They 

 employ in Hainault, Flanders and Picardy, not 

 only these ashes for the improvement of the soil, 

 but also the terre-houille itself and rich coal 

 [houille grasse'] as it is taken from the mines, but 

 after having reduced it to powder. We may be 

 convinced of this by taking a glance at the Ency- 

 clopedice ou Dictionnaire raisonne des Sciences, des 

 Arts et des Metiers, at the word houille, where a 

 long dissertation on the use and fertilizing quali- 

 ties of these substances can leave no doubt of the 

 correctness of what has been stated. 



Long before that article met my sight, I was 

 aware that rich coal possessed this quality, and I 

 had employed it in the composition of my manure: 

 this I was induced to do, by the following conside- 

 rations: 



I knew that coal by distillation in a close vessel 

 afforded, as mould does, much hydrogen gas, carbo- 

 nic acid gas, bituminous oil, and some earthy and 

 saline principles: and as soils owe their fertility 

 only to principles analogous to those of mould, I 

 concluded that coal, the decomposition of which 

 should, be favored by its minute division, by its 

 mixture with the ashes of the bricks of which I 

 have spoken, and by the combination of its bitu- 

 minous oil with the alkaline salt of the ashes as 

 well as by the concurrence of the action of air, 

 water and heat, would contribute powerfully (these 

 combined substances being applied to the growing 

 agricultural productions,) to the development and 

 growth of the plant. Now, as all the matters pro- 

 ceeding from the decomposition of vegetable and 

 animal substances are manures, and as these mat- 

 ters contain a quantity of fat, oily and other 



