L. X.Vlf. XO. MS. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



221 



From liio Alliany Cullivalor. 



ilER'S "PATENT" MANURE— LETTER 

 FROM MR ELLSWORTH. 

 Washington City, Patent Ofice, .Vur. o, 1S43. 

 tsrs. Gayiord S," Tucktr — I noticud in your 



iinber iif the Cultivator, just at liand, a pnr- 

 notice of lioinmcr's process — also hi« advur- 



nt aniKuinciiii; '' Homincr's Metliod, secured 

 ters patent," nnil relVrritij tn " documents re- 

 1 in the patent office," to prove hia rijfiits. 



dvertneiiionl has greatly increased the bur- 



answering requests for copies of " B'irnmer's 

 t." Whilst 1 have studiously avoided ex- 

 nj an opinion on cases pending or decided, 



speci.ll reference is now made to the bureau 

 tain the advertisement, and fearintr that the 



may be misled by my silence, I hasten to 



he facts as they appear on record. 



Bommer, on the l<Jll) of May, 16'4;!, present- 



upplication fcir a patent for making manure, 

 application was duly examined, and rejected 

 int of novelty. No appeal was taken. The 

 ntion was withdrawn, and $20, the usual 

 llowed on withdrawals, paid to Mr Bommer 

 ; 0th of July last. No other application has 

 nade by Mr Bommer for a patent for similar 

 ses. It may not be improper to state that 

 s. Baer & Gouilart, in June, 1843, <ibtaine(l 

 ^nt for an alleged improvement on the method 

 king manure, patented in France by JauiTret, 

 1 said method, however, has not been patented 



United Stales, and is therefore free to the 

 ;. How far the public are restricted in the 

 f foreign inventions, may be ascertained by 

 ing to the claim of the American patent, 

 I, yon will perceive, is restricted to the prep- 

 in of the heap and the mode of appli/ins^ tlie 

 1 the same ; the in<^rtdienls — (in othi:r words, 

 It itself^ — not being claimed, 

 lal no itijustico may be dune to the parties 

 ;rned, I send you a copy of the American pa- 

 and only add that Mr Bommer has become an 

 nee for several States, under this last men- 

 d patent. Yours, (Sic. 



II. L. ELLSWORTH. 



Copi/ of Baer Sf GonVarCa Patent. 

 ) all whom it may concern: Be it known that 

 'liarles Baer atid John Gouilart, of the city of 

 n'ore, in the State of Maryland, have invented 

 in now and useful improvements in the man- 

 f making manure, which has been for many 

 I practiced in France, and has been there se- 

 i by letters patent, under the name of "La 

 lode JaufTrel," and we do hereby declare that 

 allowing is a full and exact description thereof, 

 the method of Mr Jauffret, a pit or reservoir 

 epared of sufficient size to contain the quau- 

 jf prepared lye which may bo required by the 

 re of the establishment. This reservoir is in- 

 Dd to be saturated with ilecomposcd animal 

 vegetable matters, and is further to receive the 

 ?dients hereinafter named ; such water is to 

 )und on nearly every farm, and it may be aug- 

 ed by the drainings of stables, by dish-water, 

 , and other substances of a like naturr. 

 r Jauffret, however, finally prepares his lye, 

 'hich the fermentation of the articles to be 

 erted into manure is to be promoted, in the 

 wing manner, under various modifications, 

 or the conversion of from one to two thousand 



pounds of vegetable matter into manure, he takes 

 about 



200 lbs. of night soil, 

 200 " calcined plaster in powder, 

 50 " wood soot, 

 20 " Wood ashes unleached, 

 GO " (piick lime, 

 1 " common salt, 

 I " rough saltpetre, 

 150 " lyu or ferment draininga from a Jauf- 

 fret manure heap. 



These ingredients arc in many cases to be re- 

 placed by others : this lye to be prepared 10 or 15 

 days before use. The quantity of materials above 

 named, for tiie conversion of from 1 to 2000 lbs. of 

 straw or other dry vegetable stalks, will answer for 

 about double that quantity of green vegetable 

 matter. 



In using this lye, the plan of Mr Jauffret is to 

 steep it in the vegetable fires, which are to be act- 

 ed upon by throwing them into the vat or reservoir 

 containing it, and removing it thence at great la- 

 bor, so as to form a liigh heap in the vicinity of 

 the vat, into which the drainings are allowed to 

 run. 



We have thus given a brief outline of the meth- 

 od of Mr Jauffret, the same appearing necessary to 

 the understanding of our improvements, which con- 

 aist in our omitting altogether the excessive labor 

 of steeping the materials to be acted upon in the 

 lye, and elevating them from thence to the heap ; 

 and also in the preparation of a l/e which is equal- 

 ly effective with that of Jauffret, at much less cost, 

 and which can be nseil immediately on its being 

 made, thereby saving the delay of JO or 15 days, 

 which " La metliode Jauffret" requires. 



We prepare a reservoir to contain the lye as 

 usual, and in the immediate vicinity of this, we 

 make our stacks or heaps of vegetable matter, 

 which IS to be converted into manure. 



We give to the ground where the heap or pile 

 is to be made, an inclination towards the vat: if 

 the ground is a firm clay, it may be merely sloped, 

 and have shallow trenches dug on its surface to 

 conduct the drainings back into the vat ; or it may 

 have a flooring of timber, brick or stone, as may be 

 preferred, which may be so trenched as to conduct 

 the whole towards a central drain. When our 

 platform or flooring is of clay, we cover the trench- 

 es and whole surface of it with brushwood or rails, 

 so as to form a temporary grating that will support 

 the weight of the heap, and thus insure a drainage 

 and the admission of air to the heap from below. 



The materials to be converted into manure, we 

 pile up on this prepared platform immediately as 

 they are delivered by the carts, and this we some- 

 times continue to do until the heap has attained 

 the whole height to be given to it, when by the 

 use of a pump, buckets, or other Buitable means, 

 we raise the lye from the vat and pour it on to llie 

 heap, continuing so to do until the whole mass is 

 saturated ; we in general, however, raise the heap 

 lo a height of two, three, or four feet, more or less, 

 and then pour on a portion of lye, repeating tliis 

 as the height of the pile is increased : this prrce- 

 dute obviates the necessity of lifting the whole of 

 the lye to the full lioijiil of the heap. 



The materials which we employ in making the 

 lye, may bo limited to the fillowing, namely : cnw, 

 horse or hogs' dung, or night soil, the uriue drain- 

 ing from stables, and quick lime. The ingredients 

 used to be intimately mixed with a sufficient quan- 

 tity of saturated water. 



Two ol the kinds of animal dung we have found 

 to answer as well as a larjrer number. A perfect- 

 ly good lye will be made by taking one barrel each 

 of two of the species of dung, two of the uiinary 

 drainings, one of quick lime, and about ;">0 barrels 

 of saturated water, which is then to be used as 

 above explained. 



What we claim as our iniprovemeiit on Jaufl^ret's 

 method of forming manure by the rapid ferincnta- 

 lion of vegetable librca, is, first, the forming of 

 the said vegetable matter into piles or heaps, with- 

 out its being first immersed in the prepared lye, 

 and the subsequently saturating the same by the 

 pouring on the lye in the manner set forth. 



If'ihusaes, ] Charles Bafr, 



Th. M. Abbett, \ Jons Oouii.art. 



J. R. Abbett, j (Patented June 24, 1643.) 



(U^There, the secret at last is out, and we are 

 privileged with knowing the mysteries of the 

 " Patent" Bommer process of making manure, which 

 the ingenious inventor (!) and his agents have been 

 lauding so highly through the papers for the last 

 year or two; and we are, in candor, compelled to 

 say, that, though the process has some value, it is 

 not worth the purchase money demanded for the 

 privilege of using it ; and we fully coincide with 

 the opinion expn'ssed by tlie late editor of the Far- 

 mer, Mr Putnam, that the process will not give a 

 rich manure. 



P. S. — "Tills IS a great country" for genius and 

 " patents." 



Effects of Deepening the Soil The Liverpool 



Times gives the following fact, illustrating the 

 beneficial effects of loosening the soil lo a conside- 

 rable depth : 



" On Saturday last, there were exhibited in the 

 Exchange News Room, two enormous specimens 

 of the red beet, or mangel wurtzel, grown by Mr 

 Robert Neilson, in a field on his farm at Halewood. 

 Each of them weighed upwards of 20 pounds. 

 They were not merely curiosities in themselves, 

 but remarkable proofs of the effects which may be 

 produced on vegetation by the deepening of the 

 soil, for the ground which produced these gigantic 

 roots, would certainly have produced duuble the 

 quantity of potatoes, or of turnips, or of ordinary 

 sized beets, usually grown on an equal extent of 

 land. They show that by deepening the soil, an 

 amount of produce may be got from it much great- 

 er than any one has yet thought it possible to 

 raise." 



Hatching Jlpparalus. — They have a machine for 

 hatching eggs, now actually in use , in London, 

 bringing out the little chickens in broods of fifties 

 and hundreds, with all the punctuality of an old 

 hen. The following is the advertisement in the 

 London papers : 



"Messrs. Todd & Son, of Bury street. Blooms- 

 bury, beg to call the attention of the public to their 

 portable patent Hatching and Rearing Jipparalus, 

 being the original manufacturers. This success- 

 ful invention is capable of hatching, at a trifling 

 expense, any number of game and poultry eggs of 

 all sorts, from 50 to 200, at one time, and possesses 

 the further recommendution of furnishing poultry 

 for the table at a trifling cost, at all periods of the 

 year. A machine may be seen in use daily." 



Never entrust the care of your cattle and horses 

 to a person of ugly temper. 



