320 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
to the manufactures of porcelain, silk, and colors for paint- 
ers. These we were long unable to imitate, and yet they 
were discovered by them without the assistance of scien- 
tific principls ; for in the books of the Chinese we find 
recipes and directions for use, but never explanations of 
processes. 
Half a century sufficed to Europeans not only to equal, 
but to surpass the Chinese in the arts and manufactures, 
and this was owing merely to the application of correct 
principles deduced from the study of chemistry. But 
how infinitely inferior is the agriculture of Europe to that 
of China! The Chinese are the most admirable garden- 
ers and trainers of plants, for each of which they under- 
stand how to prepare and apply the best adapted manure. 
The agriculture of their country is the most perfect in the 
world ; and there, where the climate in the most fertile I 
districts differs little from the European, very little value 
is attached to the excrement of animals. With us, thick 
books are written, but no experiments instituted; the 
quantity of manure consumed by this and that plant is 
expressed in hundretk parts, and yet we know not what 
manure is ! 
If we admit that the liquid and solid excrements of 
man amounts, on an average, to 1 1-2 pounds daily, (5-4 
pounds of urine and 1-4 pound feces,) and that both 
taken together contain 3 per cent, of nitrogen, then in one 
year they will amount to 547 pounds, which contain 
16.41 pounds of nitrogen, a quantity sufficient to yield the 
nitrogen of 800 pounds of wheat, rye, oats, or of 900 
pounds of barley. (Boussingault.) 
This is much more than is necessary to add to an acre 
of land in order to obtain, with the assistance of the ni- 
trogen absorbed from the atmosphere, the richest possible 
erop everyyear. Every town and farm might thus sup- 
ply itself with the manure, which, besides containing the 
most nitrogen, contains, also, the most phosphates: and, 
if rotation of crops were adopted, they would be most 
abundant. By using, at the same time, bones and the 
lixiviated ashes of wood, the excrements of animals might 
be completely dispensed with. 
When human excrements are treated in a proper man- 
ner, so as to remove the moisture which they contain 
without permitting the escape of ammonia, they may be 
put into such a form as will allow them to be transported 
even to great distances. 
This is already attempted in many towns, and the pre- 
paration of night-soil for transportation constitutes not an 
unimportant branch of industry. But the manner in 
which this is done is the most injudicious which could be 
conceived. In Paris, for example, the excrements are pre- 
served in the houses, in open casks, fiom which they are 
collected and placed in deep pits at Montfaucon, but are 
not sold until they have attained a certain degree of dry- 
ness by evaporation in the air. But whilst lying in the 
receptacles appropriated for them in the houses, the great- 
est part of their urea is converted into carbonate of am- 
monia ; lactate and phosphate of ammonia are also formed 
and the vegetable matters contained in them putrefy; 
all their sulphates are decomposed, whilst their sulphur 
forms sulphuretted hydrogen and hydro-sulphate of am- 
monia. The mass, when dried by exposure to the air, 
has lost more than half of the nitrogen which the excre- 
ments originally contained; for the ammonia escapes into 
the atmosphere along with the water which evaporates; 
and the residue now consists principally of phosphate of 
lime, with pno-^phate and lactate of ammonia, and small 
quantities ol urate of magnesia and fatty matter. Never- 
theless, it is still a very powerful manure, but its value 
as such would be twice or four times as great, if the ex- 
crements, before being dried, were neutralised with a 
cheap mineral acid. 
In other manufactories of manure the night-soil, whilst 
still soft, is mixed with the ashes of wood, or with earthy 
both of which substan^'es contain a large quantity or caus- 
tic lime, by means of which a complete expulsion of all 
its ammonia is effected, and it is completely deprived of 
smell. But such a residue applied as manure can act 
I only by the phosphates which it still contains, for all the 
ammoniacal salts have been decomposed and their am- 
monia expelled. 
The preparation of night-soil is now carried on in Lon- 
don to a considerable extent. Owing to the variable na- 
ture of the climate, artificial means are employed in its 
desiccation. The night-soil, after being subjected to one 
or the other of the modes of treatment described below, is 
placed upon iron plates heated by means of furnaces. 
As soon as the night soil is collected, it is placed in 
large, broad trenches, until a sufficient quantity is accu- 
mulated for the purposes of the manufacturer. But here 
it undergoes the same process of putrefaction to which 
allusion has been made, and acquires a peculiarly offen- 
sive smell from the evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen 
and other gases, which are observed to escape. Unless 
some means be employed, at this stage of the process, to 
retain the ammonia, it escapes into the atmosphere in the 
form of a carbonate. Various methods have been pro- 
posed to effect this purpose. Some manufacturers mix 
the night soil with chloride of lime, and evaporate off the 
water by the aid of heat. This possesses the advantage of 
depriving the excrements of smell, and at the same time 
partially fixes the ammonia which would otherwise escape. 
Chloride of lime always contains a considerable excess of 
lime ; hence part of the ammonia contained in the night 
soil is expelled by means of it. 
More simple and economical methods might be em- 
ployed. A patent, which has been taken out for the pre- 
paration of this useful manure, states, in its specification, 
that the night soil is to be mixed with calcined mud and 
finely-divided charcoal. By this means, the smell is com- 
pletely and instantaneously removed, and the ammonia 
retained by virtue of the affinity which alumina and char- 
coal exert for that compound. This plan is both simple 
and efficacious, but the ammonia is apt to be expelled by 
the application of the heat employed in drying the ma- 
nure. The addition of a cheap mineral acid to the night 
soil, before admixture with these ingredients, would ma- 
terially improve both of the above processes. 
It would, no doubt, be highly advantageous in the pre- 
paration of manures, to prepare therr so that they con- 
tained all the ingredients necessai v ;or the supply of the 
plants to which they are applied. But these will, of 
course, vary according to the nature of the soils and 
plant'* ior which they are i 'tended. Thus bones, soap- 
bcilets’ waste, nitrate of soda, and ashes of wood, will 
often be fouud to form advantageous additions. Sul- 
phate of magnesia (Epsorn salts) w’ould, in m^'st cases, 
form an invaluable ingredient in prepared night soil. (See 
Supplementary Chapter on Soils.) The products of the 
decomposition proceeding from the action of this salt 
upon night soil are, sulphate of ammonia, phosphate of 
magnesia, and the double phosphate o( magnesia ana am- 
monia, Now all these salts exert a very favorable in- 
fluence upon vegetation, and the phosphate of magnesia is, 
in many cases, perfectly indispensable to he growth and 
development of certain plants. This suggestion is well 
worthy of the attention of the farmer. 
Perhaps the besi and most practical method of fixing 
the ammoniacal acids ot urine and night soil, is to mix 
them with the ashes of peat or coal. When the latter are 
employed, care must be taken to select such as are of a 
porous, earthy consistence. The ashes of peat and coal 
contain, in general, magnesia, hence, their value as an 
ingredient of prepared night soil. When magnesia is not 
present it will be necessary to add some magnesian lime- 
