BY MIXED MANURES. 



293 



the yard. It may be remarked, generally, that in all cases 

 where manures are applied without forming them into com- 

 post heaps, they should be applied in the green state, but when 

 composted with vegetable matter, it is far preferable to allow 

 them to pass through the fermenting processes. 



6. Poudrette is night soil mixed with ground peat and 

 plaster, and dried so as to be rendered inodorous and porta- 

 ble. If the sulphate of lime and peat are added before it is 

 dried, the ammonia will be converted into a sulphate, or ab- 

 sorbed by the peat and retained. The value of good pou- 

 drette depends upon the quantity of ammonia and geine. It 

 has been valued in comparison with cow dung as 14 to I.* 



7. Chiano is a very valuable manure. It is the excrements 

 of birds, and is found in the greatest abundance on the islands 

 of the Southern Ocean, where it forms beds from eighty to 

 ninety feet in thickness. It is composed, according to Voel- 

 ckel, of 



Urate of ammonia .9 



Oxalate of ammonia 10.6 



Oxalate of lime 7.0 



Phosphate of ammonia 6.0 



Phos, of ammonia and mag. 2.6 



Sulphate of potash 5.5 



Sulphate of soda 3.8- 



Muriate of ammonia 4.2 



Phosphate of lime 14.3 



Clay and sand 4.7 



Undetermined organ, sub. 32.3 

 of which 12 per cent, is soluble. 



This substance is said to render fertile the soils of Peru, 

 which do not contain a particle of organic matter. It will 

 be seen from its composition that it contains all the elements 

 of fertility, a large quantity of salts, and 12 per cent, of sol- 



* There is yet another form of poudrette, which though much used 

 in France, has not been introduced here. It is almost one-half ani- 

 mal matter, and it is formed without any offensive evolution of gas, 

 by boiling the offal of the slaughter-house, by steam, into a thick 

 soup, and then mixing the whole into a stiff paste, with sifted coal 

 ashes, and drying. If putrefaction should have begun, the addition 

 of ashes, sweetens the whole, and the prepared " animalized coal," as 

 it is termed, or poudrette, is as sweet to the nose, as garden mould. 

 It is transported in barrels from Paris to the interior, and is a capital 

 manure. — Dana's Muck Manual. 



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