682 Tbaxsacttoxs of the American Ixstitute. 



deposited. Tlie working of the same principle is also evident in tlie 

 greater value of mamire taken from the pig-stjas compared with that 

 derived from the cow-stable, the food of fattening swine being richer 

 than the hay fed to cattle. The rule holds true in a greater and 

 more manifest degree with reference to the fertilizers made from the 

 sewer refuse of cities and the oti'al of animals, of which the writer 

 pro})oses to speak somewhat at length, in the following description 

 of the 



Manffactuke or PorORETTE 



And other commercial manures at tlie woi'ks of the Lodi manutactur- 

 ing company, made from notes taken during a careful examinatio-n of 

 the establishment. 



The company have been in existence for about thirty years, and 

 until within the past year or two their method of making poudrette 

 was identical with that employed in similar manufactories in Europe, 

 a certain proportion of peat being added to conserve the ammonia. 

 This was found, however, to make a maniire too bulky for transpor- 

 tation, and, after inany experiments and much expense, a plan was 

 perfected by which the use of peat and chemicals could be dispensed- 

 with; machinery was also devised for separating the rubbish and 

 extraneous matter from the material, so that by this means a much 

 stronger and more efficient fertilizer is obtained. 



Poudrette is a material made from the night-soil or foecal matter of 

 cities and from the foul offal of slaughter-houses. The Lodi manufactur- 

 ing company have an exclusive contract for all the night-soil of New 

 York city during some six years to come, and for that of Jersey city 

 for three years, and have also managed to get control of all the 

 butchers' refuse and dead animals of jN'ew York and Jersey city, and 

 the offal of the great Communipaw abattoirs. All this immense mass 

 of decaying organic matter is conveyed by boats to the works on the 

 Ilackensack river, to be converted into the dry, dust-like substance 

 Avhich, packed in l)arrels, is sent by railway ayd steamer to enrich the 

 soil of farms and gardens hundreds of miles away. 



The niglit-soil is taken from the city sewers in a thick semi-fluid 

 condition, and run into the holds of barges containing from eighty 

 to 300 cartloads, or from 60 to 200 tons each. Before this is done, 

 however, it is required by law that the whole should be disinfected. 

 Tin's is accomplished by the use of what is termed carbolic or phenic 

 acid, a substance that possesses great deodorizing and disinfecting 

 poAvers, and which acts so effectually- that when the hold of a barge 



