A GUIDE FOR KEEPERS OF POULTRY 251 
left in barrels there is a strong odor of ammonia notice- 
able. The development of such an odor is a sure sign 
that gaseous ammonia is escaping into the air to be lost 
for the present. How to prevent such a loss is to pre- 
vent the development of the odor. Several chemicals, 
of more or less fertilizing value in themselves, may be 
added to the droppings from time to time with good 
effect, both in stopping waste and in making the air of 
the henhouse more wholesome. The best materials for 
this purpose are gypsum or land plaster, acid phosphate 
and kainit, a cheap potash salt. Each of the chemicals 
has the power of forming new compounds with the am- 
monia as fast as it is set free from the original combina- 
tion. Wood ashes or slaked lime should never be used 
because neither combines with ammonia but forces it out 
of its compounds and takes its place. Plaster is apt to 
form a dry, lumpy mixture when used in large enough 
quantities to arrest the ammonia, while acid phosphate 
and kainit effect a moist, sticky mass.” 
Bulletin 98 of Maine Experiment Station describes an 
experiment in which sawdust was used in addition to 
chemicals. By this addition of an absorbent, the kainit 
and acid phosphate could then be used with excellent 
results. “Using these results as a basis for calculation 
the weekly droppings of 25 hens, when scraped from the 
roosting platforms, should be mixed with about 8 pounds 
of kainit or acid phosphate and half a peck of sawdust. 
If one wanted a balanced fertilizer for corn or other 
hoed crops, a mixture of equal parts of kainit and acid 
phosphate might be used instead of either alone. Good 
dry meadow muck would be equally good as sawdust, if 
not better as an absorbent. In the experiment men- 
tioned more than half the ammonia was lost in hen 
