VoL. II. AUGUSTA, GA., MARCH 20, 1844. No. 6. 
From the New England Farmer. 
DANA’S PRIZE ESSAY ON MANURES. 
Section Second. 
Shovelling over the Compost Heap. 
The above remarks, (section 1st,) maybe 
called our compost heap. It must be well shov- 
elled over. You must, reader, before you cart it 
out and spread it, understand well what this 
compost contains. Now, just let me turn over 
a few shovels full, and fork out the main points 
to which I w’ish to call your attention. 
1st. That all plants find in stable manure eve- 
ry thing they want. 
2d. That stable manure consists of water, coal 
and salts. 
3d. That these, water, coal and salts, consist 
in all plants of certain substances, in number 
fourteen, which are called — 1. Oxygen; 2. Hy- 
drogen; 3. Nitrogen; 4. Carbon; 5. Sulphur; 
6. Phosphorus; 7. Potash; 8. Soda; 9. Lime; 
10. Magnesia ; 11. Alumina or clay ; 12. Iron ; 
13. Manganese; 14. Chlorine; which last, as 
we have said, forms about one-half tlie weight 
of common salt. And if you always associate 
with the word chlorine, the fertilizing properties 
of common salt, you will, perhaps, have as good 
an idea of this substance as a farmer need have, 
to understand the action of chlorine. 
4th. These fourteen substances maybe divid- 
ed into four classes: Isi, the airy or eases, oxy- 
gen, hydrogen, nitrogen and chlorine. 2d, the 
combustibles, carbon, sulphur and phosphorus. 
3d, the earths and metals, lime, clay, magnesia, 
iron and manganese. 4th, the alkalies, potasti 
and soda. 
You may be surprised that I have not turned 
up ammonia, but this exists in plants as hydro- 
gen and nitrogen. 
5th. The term salt includes a vast variety of 
substances, formed of alkalies, earths and met- 
als, combined with acids.' Fix well the mean- 
ing of this term in your mind, and remernber 
the distinction pointed out, that some salts are 
volatile, and act quick in manure, and others 
are fixed and act slower. 
6th When plants die or decay, they return to 
the earth or air these fourteen substances. — 
Those returned to the earth from mould, which 
thus is composed of carbon, salts and water, is 
natural manure, 
7th. Mould consists of two kinds, one of 
which inay be, and the other cannot be, dissolv- 
ed by water. Alkalies put it into a state to be 
dissolved, and in proportion as it is dissolved it 
becomes valuable as a manure. 
8th. If then manure contains only water, car- 
bon and salts, any substance which affords simi- 
lar products, may be substituted for it. Hence, 
we come to a division of manures into natural 
and artificial. The consideration of these is the 
carting out and spreading of our compost. And 
we shall first consider in detail the natural ma- 
nures. That is, those which are furnished us 
by the dung and urine of anitnals, and the ma- 
nure or mould formed by the decay of animal 
bodies or plants. These are truly the natural 
manures, consisting of water, mould and salts. 
This is all that is found in cattle dung. This 
being premised, we may divide manures, read- 
er, for your more convenient consideration, not 
by their origin, but by their composition. We 
may divide manures into these' three classes: 
First, those consisting of vegetable or animal 
matter, called mould : Secondly, those consist" 
ing chiefly of sal’s: and, thirdly, those consist- 
ing of a mixture of these two classes. And, be- 
ginning with the last first, we will now proceed 
to their consideration. 
Section Third. 
Carting out and Spreading. 
The general chemical information set forth 
in the preceding section, will be of no service to 
you, reader, if it conducts you not beyond the 
result arrived at in the close of the last section, 
that cattle dung is composed of water, mould and 
salts. 
You want to know what salts, and how they 
act. If you understand this, you may be able to 
say beforehand, whetherother things, supposing 
their nature understood, can take the place of 
the mould and salts. 
The mould, then, of cattle dung, as all other 
mould, contains the following substances : 
The water consists of oxygen and hydro- 
gen. 
The mould consists of carbon, oxygen, hydro- 
gen, nitrogen and ammonia. 
Thus it is seen that the mould contains all 
the substances found in the first class into which 
the elements of plants were divided. The salts 
contain the sulphur, phosphorus, and the car- 
bon, as sulphuric, phosphoric, and carbonic 
acids, and the chlorine as muriatic acid or spir- 
its of salt. 
The acids formed of theelunents of the fourth 
class of the substances entering into plants, are 
combined with those of the second and thiid 
classes, namely : the potash, soda, lime, clay, 
magnesia, iron, and manganese. Here, then, 
we have all the elements of plants, found in cat- 
tle dung. Let us detail their several propor- 
tions. We have all that plants need, distribut- 
ed in cattle dung, as follows : 
In 100 lbs. of cattle dung, are, 
Water, 83.G0 
Mould, composed of hay, 14.10 
Bile and slime, 1.275 
Albumen, a substance like the white of 
an egg, 175 
Salts, silica, or sand, 14 
Potash, united to oil of vitriol, forming 
a salt, 05 
Potash, united to acid of mould, 07 
Common salt, 08 
Bone dust, or phosphate of lime, 23 
Plaster of Paris, 12 
Chalk, or carbonate of lime, 12 
Magnesia, iron, man^ianese, clay, united 
to the several acids above, 14 
100 
Section Fourth. 
Of the Action oj Mould in Cattle Dung. 
Here, then, we have cattle dung, with its sev- 
al ingredients, spread out before us. 
We have now to study its action. We need 
here consider only the salts and mould. The 
water is only water, and has no other action than 
water. The mould includes the hay ; for that 
has, by chewing, and the action of the beast’s 
stomach, lost so much of its character, that, 
mingled with the slime and bile, &c., it more 
rapidly decays than fresh hay would, placed in 
similar circumstances. During this act of de- 
cay, as you have already learned, the volatile 
parts of the mould are given off in part. These 
escape as in burning wood, as water or steam, 
carbonic acid, and ammonia. In consequence 
of this slow mouldering fire or decay, the ma- 
nure heats. Here, then, we have three very de- 
cided and important actions produced by the 
vegetable part, or mould of cattle dung. First, 
carbonic acid is given off; second, am.monia is 
formed; third, heat is produced. Let us now 
consider each of these, and their effects. 
First, the great action ef the carbonic acid is 
upon the soil, its earthy parts. It has the same 
action on these, that air, rain, frost, have ; it di- 
vides and reduces them. It not only reduces 
them to powder, but it extracts from the earth 
potash and the alkalies. This is a very impor- 
tant act, and shows why it is necessary that de- 
cay or fermentation should take place in and un- 
der the soil among sprouting seeds and growing 
roots, in order that they may obtain from the 
soil the salts they want. 
If well-rotted manure contains abundance of 
these salts, ready formed in its mould, then there 
will be less necessity of this action of carbonic 
acid. But here again it must be remembered, 
that this abundance of .salts, ready formed in 
mould, can be produced only at the expense of 
great loss by fermentation of real valuable parts. 
For, 
Secondly, the next great action of the mould 
of cattle dung, is to produce or form ammonia. 
This plays a threefold part: its first action is to 
render the mould more soluble; this action it 
possesses in common with the fixed alkalies, 
potash and soda. All the alkalies put a large, 
but undefined portion of mould, into a state fit 
to become food for plants. The second action 
of ammonia IS thi.s, it hastens decay. It is the 
bellows, w’e may say, kindling the'slow mould- 
ering fire. The third action of ammonia is to 
combine with any free acids, such as vinegar, 
or even an acid formed of mould itself, but espe- 
cially with aquafortis, or nitric acid, which is 
always produced where animal cr vegetable 
matters decay. This is a highly important fact. 
The result of this action, the production of am- 
monia and aquafortis during the formation of 
mould, is, that a kind of saltpetre is thereby 
produced. That is, the ammonia and aquafor- 
tis unite, and form a salt, with properties simi- 
lar to saltpetre. But we want the first and sec- 
ond action of ammonia to occur, before the third 
takes place. Consider now, reader, whether a 
more beautiful and effectual way can be devis- 
ed to hasten decay, and render mould more fit 
for nourishing piapts, than this which nature 
has provided. The ammonia is volatile. It 
remains, not like potash and soda, where it is 
put, incapable of moving unless dissolved by 
water ; but ammonia, like steam, pervades eve- 
ry part. It is as expansive as steam. Heated 
up by the slow mouldering fire of decay, it pene- 
trates the whole mass of mould. It does its 
work there. What is that work 1 It has alrea- 
dy been told. But, if it finds no acid to com- 
bine with, it then unites w’ith the mould itself, 
it is absorbed by it. The mould holds it fast ; 
it stores it up against the time when growing 
plants may need it. Now it is only where the 
abundance of ammonia produced satisfies these 
actions of hastening decay, making mould solu- 
ble, and filling its pores without combining 
with it, that the formation of saltpetre takes 
place. So where animal matters, which are the 
