CXDMMERCI A IT FERTILIZER. 7 



has put all the bone into solution, the material should 

 be a more or less homogeneous sticky mass. Of course 

 this could not be applied to a field readily, so it must 

 be mixed with some drying material, as dry sand. 

 Ashes or lime should not be used as drying material, 

 because these are liable to revert the phosphate of 

 iime to the insoluble form again. Generally, it will 

 be found cheaper to buy the superphosphate than to 

 buy tbe materials and prepare it. 



The packing-houses and slaughter houses collect the 

 bones and harder portion of refuse to grind up for 

 fertilizer. When considerable blood is mixed with 

 this bone meal, it goes under the name of blood and 

 bone. The bones and refuse of fish in large fisheries, 

 also the carcasses of worthless fish, are used for this 

 important element of plant food. Thousands of tons 

 of these forms of phosphoric acid are used yearly as 

 fertilizer in the South. 



POTASH. 



In nature this usually occurs as a chloride (muriate), 

 a sulphate, or a carbonate. It is very widely distri- 

 buted, occurring in all parts of the world, and is one 

 of the fertilizer ingredients that is left after plants 

 are burned ; in other words, it is one of the main in- 

 gredients of the ash of plants. Besides this general 

 distribution, it also occurs in large bodies in parts of 

 the earth. One ot the largest and most important of 

 these is located in Stassfurt, Germany, where it is 

 mined much as salt is in the other portions of Europe. 

 In this place it occurs as a sulphate mixed with com- 

 mon salt and other ingredients, and imported to this 

 country under the name of kainit. When refined, it is 

 sold on our market as muriate of potash or sulphate 

 of potash, as the case may be. 



