for the Encouragement of Arts. 277 



forms a much richer and more serviceable manure than that of the coal tar. 

 And thus products of small importance, cheap and abundant, may be turned 

 to good account in fertilising our soil. 



" The Nitrates of potash, soda, ammonia, and lime, are all undoubtedly 

 possessed of considerable efficacy as manures. 



" The nitrate of lime is found in some old mortars ; and both nitrate of 

 ammonia and the nitrate of lime exist in the drainings and liquid of the 

 dunghills, or muck-heaps ; and to these, in some measure, is owing the highly 

 fertilising power thereof Nitrate of ammonia is a beautiful stimulant ; and 

 those who wish to excite the growth of favourite plants may water them with 

 weak solutions, a dram to a pint of water, or use it in the hyacinth glasses in 

 the same way as nitre has been used with such efficacy in quickening the 

 growth. 



Oxide of Alanganese has been tried on many occasions : it readily admits of 

 vegetation, and seems to possess the power of rousing and calling into action 

 the dormant and languid vitality of old seeds. If mixed with the soil, it 

 might yield oxygen to the plant, and absorb it again gradually from the air 

 and moisture, so as to remain in the soil unimpaired for ages. It would 

 appear to me to deserve a trial from the results I obtained with it. 



" Whatever scepticism or ridicule coal-dust may meet with, I have the 

 satisfaction of laying before your honourable Society a specimen, which, I 

 trust, will meet with approbation, and to which, I believe, no valid or rational 

 objection can be made ; and the principle 1 deem to be one of considerable 

 national importance. I allude to the combination of quicklime with sprats, 

 fish, offal, refuse, blood, &c., and which might be used, in a commercial point 

 of view, by the whalers and sealers using quicklime to preserve the flesh, and 

 make it into a valuable manureal product, not to be despised in the absence of 

 a better cargo. 



" The Greenland whalers and the Newfoundland scalers, &;c., would afford 

 the means of enormous masses of animal matter being available for manure, 

 the flesh being now thrown away in both cases. 



" The specimen marked ' Sprat- lime, No. I.,' is a perfect chemical combina- 

 tion of sprats and lime: — 3 parts by weight of sprats; 1 part by weight of 

 good quicklime. 



" The sprats are smashed or crushed by rollers into a complete pulp, and 

 the whole mass of them carefully and intimately mixed with the quicklime by 

 trituration. A considerable heat is produced, which tends greatly to the 

 drying of the sprats ; and some ammonia is evolved, especially if they are not 

 fresh. In a ^ew dB.ys the material is dry. It is necessary to bear in mind that 

 no artificial heat should be employed, and that they should be turned over 

 once a day. 



" Sprat-lime approaches nearest in manureal properties to bone-dust. It is 

 not liable to be attacked by worms or insects ; does not come into rapid 

 action at first ; the sprats are economised and preserved, and their influence 

 extended over a considerable time, supporting vegetation equably and well for 

 several years, I presume. It is not destroyed by birds. The animal matter is 

 not very soluble in sprat-lime ; and it is, in well made specimens, in perfect 

 chemical combination. The proportion of animal matter, or fish, must not be 

 increased beyond that of three times the quantity of lime employed, otherwise 

 it will be of a very inferior nature, and liable to decomposition. 



" Lime may be regarded, in an agricultural point of view, as the salt of the 

 earth, and the means of preserving all substances for manureal purposes. 



" If two parts offish and one of lime be used, it of course dries the quicker 

 and faster ; but, then, the bulk of the manure is increased and its value 

 lessened by the diminution of the fish or animal matter. Three to one seem 

 to be fair and good proportions. It is most important to bear in mind that 

 quicklime is to be employed, and not slacked lime, on account of its already 

 containing its definite quantity of water, and hence its value and efficacy are 

 very much impaired. 



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