346 



TALKS OK MAN-TIRES. 



cJudes accuracy, yet Mr. Skidmore (who has been testifying volumi- 

 nously before the New York Board of Health in relation to manure and 

 street dirt), assures me that the accompanying figures are nearly correct. 

 1 enclose statement, from two roads, taken from their books, and the 

 amount shipped over the other road I obtained verbally from the General 

 Freight Agent, and embody it in the sheet of statistics. 



The Ash report I know is correct, as I had access to the books showing 

 the business, for over ten years. I have made numerous applications, 

 verbally, and by letter, to our largest market gardeners, but there seems 

 to exist a general and strong disinclination to communicate anything 

 worth knowing. I enclose the best of the replies received. Speaking 

 for some of our largest gardeners, I may say that they cultivate over one 

 hundred acres, and use land sufficiently near to the city to enable them 

 to dispense with railroad transportation in bringing manure to their 

 places and marketing crops. I have noticed that one of the shrewdest 

 gardeners invariably composts horn-shavings and bone-meal with horse- 

 manure several months before expecting to use it. A safe average of 

 manure used per acre by gardeners, may be stated at ninety (90) tubs, 

 and from two hundred to twenty hundred pounds of fertilizer in addi- 

 tion, according to its strength, and the kind of crop. 



The following railroad manure statistics will give a gen er-.lly correct 

 idea of the age of manure, when used : 



STATEMENT OP MANURE SENT FROM JAIT. 1 TO Di:C. Cl, 1875. 



Over F. N. S. & C. 7?. 11. Over Southern R. R. 



January 1,531 tubs. 5,815 tubs. 



February ' 4,357 



March 740 12,217 



April 12,122 7,055 



May 7,383 3,049 



June 5,725 1,365 



July 6,4734 685 



August 6,370i 2,911 



September 8,19 / 14,702 



October 880 660 



November 512 840 



December 1,406 4,0:3 



46,340 tubs. 57,679 tubs. 



A tub is equal to 14 bushels. 



Hobson, Hurtado & Co. report the amount of Peruvian guano sold in 

 this country last year at thirty thousand tons. 



Estimated number of horses in New York city, 100,000. 



Estimated product of manure per horse. Four cords. 



Estimated proportion of straw to pure excrement. One-half. 



Amount shipped direct from stables. Nearly all. 



Amount shipped on vessels. One-half. 



Length of time the unshipped manure remains in heaps. From three 

 to four months. 



Average cost per horse, annually. S3. 



Greatest distance of shipment. Virginia. 



