188 MANURES. 



lost ; whereas, if thej are dissolved in ashes, and lept 

 I'wt, the organic part all remains. The cask may be 

 left open at the top, and the falling rain will generally 

 afford just about as much water as is wanted, but in 

 long, dry spells more should be added ; since, if the 

 bones become dry, they not only become hard, instead 

 of dissolving, but they emit offensive odors, and thus 

 lose nearly all their organic part, nearly the same 

 effect being produced upon them in this respect as by 

 being burnt. 



352. Of foreign fertilizers, as guano, bones of cattle 

 from Central America, nitrate of soda (often called 

 soda- saltpetre), from South America, and various 

 others,. I shall not speak in this work ; nor shall I 

 dwell on those more portable manures beginning to be 

 prepared and sold in our own country, as poudrette, 

 prepared from the night-soil of cities, phosphate and 

 superphosphate of lime, made principally from the 

 bones of animals, oyster-shell lime, and others. 



853. I have already commended the enterprise of 

 the men engaged in this business, as affording a chan- 

 nel through which the sources of fertility, ever flow- 

 ing from the country to the city, may flow back again 

 whence they came. The time will come when nearly 

 all the mineral elements in the hay, grain, and roots, 

 brought to the city, and a large portion of the organic 

 elements, will find their way back to the country ; 

 those in a heavier form, to farms near the city ; and 

 those lighter for transportation, to farms more remote. 

 Population will increase ; there will be new facilities 



