462 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



secured without the disadvantage of the waste in dressing with 

 long manure. 



FISH. 



A number of other organic substances have been maltreated 

 of late for the purpose of making fertilizers. Some chemists 

 propose to treat fish with sulphuric acid, and to make the com- 

 post dry by drying out the water. A few years ago, a Mr. Rotch 

 came here from Europe, and proposed treating butchers' offals in 

 the same way, forgetting that they contain 90 per cent, of water ; 

 a sirloin piece of beef contains 87 per cent, of water. Butchers' 

 offals, dead horses, <fec., treated with sulphuric acid and made 

 into a dry powder, the chemist stated, would contain all the or- 

 ganic constituents in a proper state to nourish vegetation. When 

 animal matter is treated with sulphuric acid, it is not in a proper 

 state to feed plants: It is only true of the phosphates contained 

 in that animal matter ; of them it is specially true. Barren Is- 

 land was made a depot for this manure, and thousands of tons 

 were there manufactured. At Brighton, near Boston, Nourse, Mason, 

 and others, put up works costing $40,000 to $50,000, and took 

 butchers' offals and made this peculiar kind of material. They call- 

 ed it here the Cheval guano, being made chiefly from dead horses. 

 After being experimented with, it was found to be a failure, and 

 the company becoming insolvent, several thousand tons of it 

 were sold at auction. It brought some $3 a ton, and at that was 

 found practically to be a poor manure. So it is with fish when 

 thus treated. 



Fish decompose very readily when buried, as all the necessary 

 absorbents to take up the result of their decomposition exist in 

 the soil, viz : the carbon and the alumina, without which, as I 

 stated in my last lecture, every well would become a cesspool, 

 and the fluids passing down from the surface would carry the 

 food of plants bej'^ond their reach, leaving the whole surface of 

 the earth barren. Fish may be applied in the soil, throwing it 

 into the furrows, as practiced upon Long Island ; and then re- 

 quire only the presence of potash, or lime, or some other alkali 

 to assist the decomposition. Although the soils do not require 

 alkalies, it is well then to add them for that special purpose, and 

 not to supply any deficiency in the soil. 



WOOLEN WASTE. 



Thousands of tons are wasted in this city alone, and much in 

 many other parts of the country. Farmers in England use 



