AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 427 



Sawdust saturated with the liquor of the gas houses is capital 

 for turnips. The seeds of plants enrich a soil rapidly, far more 

 so than their stems, particularly those from which the oil has 

 been expressed. Soot is a most valuable manure, it contains 

 nearly fifty per cent of mineral matters, such as gypsum, sulphate 

 of magnesia, &c., from the lime in the chimney, also sulphur from 

 the fuel, and sulphate of ammonia. If used in large quantities 

 on grass lands, it will cause the milk of cows feeding on it to 

 taste bitter, but produce a magnificent pasture. Coal tar diluted 

 with water improves land very much, and destroys insects, it 

 should only be used on stubble intended to be plouahed under. 

 Tanners bark may be used advantageously if composted. 



The blood of animals operates very rapidly on the growth of 

 plants, as it decays quickly, and as soon loses its value on suc- 

 ceeding crops. Fish are often used, and should be composted 

 with head- lands. Animalized charcoal from the sugar refineries 

 I have used advantageously when treated with sulphuric acid. 



Elood contains about 85 per cent, of water. Two tons of hair, 

 or woolen rags, is of as much value for agricultural purposes as 

 twenty tons of blood, they do not appear to us as valuable, 

 because they decay more slowly. 



Two hundred pounds of bones ground fine, will convey to the 

 land more organic matter, than 800 pounds of blood, their inor- 

 ganic matter, such as magnesia, common salt, soda, lime, phos- 

 phoric acid, &c., is also valuable, it may be dissolved with 

 sulphuric acid in four days, rendering it particularly available to 

 the farmer, and may be diluted with sixty times its weight of 

 water, and then applied with the sprinkling cart. 



If you wish to manure a field of potatoes advantageously, and 

 produce remarkable results, use the manure of hogs fed on 

 potatoes. For grass or turnips, animals fed on those productions. 

 Pigeons' dung is admirable for wheat and rye, rabbits and sheep 

 ,for garden vegetables, and the excremenis of man for all known 

 seeds. The urine of man is much more valuable than that of 

 the sheep, the cow, or horse, as it contains over eight per cent, of 

 the phosphates, which are not found in the urine of other 

 animals, except possibly the hog. In Flanders the excrement 

 derived from a man is considered worth $6.75 per annum. 



The dung of birds possesses wonderful fertilizing properties, 

 from the fact that it is both liquid and solid, containing nearly 

 all the food the bird eats, and consequently a large proportion of 

 the food of plants, with the exception of potash, which should 



