URI 



URO 



" How much of all this enriching ] orating the whole to dryness. From 

 matter is permitted to run to waste ! \ the use of this substance very favour- 



Tlie solid substances contained \n 

 urine, if all added to the land, would 

 bo more fertilizing than guano. If 

 wo estimate the urine of each indi- 

 vidual on an average at only 600 lbs., 

 then there are carried into the com- 

 mon sewers of a city of 1-5,000 inhab- 

 itants a yearly weight of 600,000 



able results may be anticipated. Still 

 none of these preparations wdl ever 

 equal the urine itself, part of the effi- 

 cacy of which depends upon the per- 

 fect state of solution in which all the 

 substances it contains exist, and upon 

 the readiness with which in this state 

 they make their way into the roots 



pounds, or 270 tons of manure, wiiich ; of plants 



would, no doubt, prove more fertil- 

 izing than its own weight of guano, 

 and might be expected to raise an in- 

 creased produce of not less than 8000 

 bushels of grain. 



"The saving of all this manure 

 would be a great national benefit, 

 though it is not easy to see by what 

 means it could be eHectually accom- 

 plished. What is thus carried ofTby 

 the sewers, and conveyed ultimately 

 to the sea, is drawn from and lost by 

 the land, which must, therefore, to 

 a certain extent, be impoverished. 

 Can we believe that in the form of 

 fish, of sea-tangle, or of spray, the 

 sea ever delivers back a tithe of the 

 enriching matter it daily receives 

 from the land ! 



" Urate. — In order to prevent a 

 portion of this waste, the practice 

 has been introduced into some large 

 cities of collecting the urine, adding 

 to it one seventh of its weight of 

 powdered gypsum, allowing the whole 

 to stand for some days, pouring off" 

 the liquid, and drying the powder- 

 Under the name of uralc this dry 

 powder has been highly extolled, but 

 it can contain only a small portion 

 of what is really valuable in urine. 

 The hquid portion poured off must 

 contain most of the soluble ammoni- 

 acal and other salts, and even were 

 the whole evaporated to dryness, the 

 gypsum does not act so rapidly in fi.x- 

 ing the ammonia as to prevent a con- 

 siderable escape of this compound as 

 the fermentation ofthe urine proceeds. 

 " Suiphatcd Urine — A method of 

 more apparent promise is that now 

 practised by the .Messrs. Turnbull of 

 Glasgow, of adding diluted sulphuric 

 acid to the urine as the ammonia is 

 formed in it, and subsequently cvap- 



Loss of Cows' Urine.— \\\\cx\ left 

 to ferment for five or six weeks alone, 

 and with the addition of an equal bulk 

 of water, the urine of the cow loses, 

 as we have seen, a considerable pro- 

 portion of volatile matter, and in 

 these several states will yield in a 

 year, 



Yielding 



Solid matter. 



Recent urine . - . - 900 lbs. 

 Mixed with water, after j g-(j „ 



550 " 



si.x weeks . . - ) 

 Unmixed, after 6 weeks . 



of amnionia. 



226 lbs. 



200 " 



30 » 



" Those who scrupulously collect 

 in tanks, and preserve the liquid ma- 

 nure of their stables, cow-houses, 

 and fold-yards, will see, from the 

 great loss' which it undergoes by nat- 

 ural fermentation, the propriety of 

 occasionally washing out their cow- 

 houses with water, and by thus dilu- 

 ting the liquid of their tanks, of pre- 

 serving the immediately operating 

 constituents of their liquid manure 

 from escaping into the air. Even 

 when thus diluted it is desirable to 

 convey it on to the land without much 

 loss of tune, since even in this state 

 there is a constant slow escape, by 

 which its value is daily diminished. 

 Gypsum, sulphate of iron, and sulphu- 

 ric acid are, by some, added for the 

 purpose of fixing the aimnonia, hut 

 in addition to diluting it, an admix- 

 ture of rich vegetable soil, and espe- 

 cially of peat, will be much more eco- 

 nomical, and, except in so far as the 

 gypsum and sulphuric acid themselves 

 act as manures, nearly as effectual." 

 URN. The small receptacle of 

 mosses in which the sporules are 

 placed. 



UROCER.\TA. The name of a 

 tribe ofthe Tcrcbrantia, or boring hy- 

 menopterous insects, in which the tcr- 



823 



