Fairs in the West*—City Manures* 
floated nine appropriate banners, one for each county 
embraced in the society. 
The officers and members were distinguished by 
badges, and the marshals by wands peculiarly adapted 
to the occasion, for they were immense stalks of Indian 
corn. 
But enough upon this subject. I only wished to let 
you know that we can do something else here in the 
west leside raising wheat at 40 cts. a bushel. 
It is my intention soon to give you an article de¬ 
scriptive of this prairie region. 
Be assured Messrs. Editors of my personal esteem, 
and earnest hope for the success of your journal. 
I remain yours, &c. 
Solon Robinson. 
Lake Co. H., la ., Nov . 4 th, 1842. 
Three thousand guests at table certainly 
beats our state show at Albany, and fully 
equals the number who sat down to dinner 
at the meeting of the English Royal Agricul¬ 
tural Society, at Liverpool. But we hope to 
come up to this number next year at Roches¬ 
ter, and that Mr. Robinson, and many of his 
prairie friends mill be there as partakers in 
the good things which will undoubtedly be 
provided for the occasion. 
We insert another valuable article from 
Mr. Partridge, on City Manures , and beg to 
call the serious attention of the neighboring 
farmers to it. Let them not be deterred 
from reading this communication, from the 
use of the scientific terms in it, for the 
sooner they understand them the better it 
will be ; and they must recollect, that it is 
quite out of the question for the writer to 
convey the information, without making use 
of them. But all may understand the gene¬ 
ral meaning, and by gathering up and making 
use of even a part of these fertilizing re¬ 
sources pointed out, they will gain for them¬ 
selves what would pay for many years sub¬ 
scription of this paper. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
To our Farmers who obtain Manure from the City of 
New-York. 
In my last I brought to your notice two fertilizing 
materials heretofore thrown away in our city. I shall 
proceed in this and future essays, to bring forward all 
others that may come under my inspection. 
There was one error in my last which I now rectify. 
In referring to charcoal dust I am made to say, that “ it 
can be bought at two shillings per barrel, and that a 
friend had bought sixty barrels at that price.” It 
should have been one shilling per barrel. This is the 
dust left in the bottoms of the vessels after selling the 
large coal. 
I shall now bring to your notice the article of soap 
lees, i. e. the lees thrown away by our soap boilers. 
This material is one of the most valuable fertilizers 
the farmer or gardener can collect, with the exception 
of ammonia. When soap is made with caustic potash 
lye, and then hardened with the soda of salt, the liquor 
run off will contain muriate of potash, with a small 
portion of free potash. If this liquor contained no other 
ingredient, the best application would be to add 2 gal¬ 
lons of it to 20 gallons of water, and let it fall on the land 
by the same process that our streets are watered. There 
is, however, another material combined with it, which 
makes it the interest of the consumer to put it into a 
compost heap with charcoal. There is in every hun¬ 
dred weight of fat used by the soap boiler, two or three 
pounds of thin filmy skin, which do not enter into the 
soap; and this being dissolved in the lye, passes off 
with it, and when decomposed in a manure heap, will 
furnish a large supply of ammonia. To prevent its 
evaporation when formed, the presence of charcoal or 
plaster will be necessary. 
When soap is made with barilla, the residuum will 
contain muriate of soda, carbonate of soda, and some 
caustic soda; together with the animal matter as men¬ 
tioned above. 
The value of this material can be accurately esti¬ 
mated by those using it, when I inform them, that five 
gallons of the lye contains in solution more than two 
pounds of potash, when made with potash lye, and 
hardened with salt; or of soda, when barilla is used. 
This is as much alkali as would be contained in three 
barrels of soapers 5 ashes. 
A gentleman near Hartford, Conn., has used soap- 
ers* lees as a manure, and speaks of its product¬ 
ive powers, as far exceeding his most sanguine ex¬ 
pectation. 
The next material I shall call your attention to, is 
the blood now thrown away at our slaughter houses. 
This material is one of the most valuable of. the ferti¬ 
lizers, and should be placed in a manure heap, with a 
large portion of charcoal, or plaster, to absorb the am¬ 
monia formed during its decomposition. An addition 
of caustic lime would greatly facilitate the process. It 
is a compound material, consisting of three salts of 
soda, and extractive matter. One of the salts of soda 
is a phosphate, which indicates its peculiar applicabi¬ 
lity to the potatoe, as this plant contains more phos¬ 
phate of lime than any other culinary vegetable. It 
also contains considerable prussine, which readily 
passes into ammonia when decomposed by fermenta¬ 
tion. Some few years since dried blood was employed 
as the animal matter in making prussiate of potash. 
I shall now direct your attention to the liquor 
thrown away by our gas houses. I can speak of this ma¬ 
terial experimentally, having sold thousands of pounds 
of single and double F ammonia made from it. To those 
farmers and gardeners who live at a distance from 
New-York, I would recommend to mix with this liquor 
a large quantity of ground plaster, stirring well several 
times, and then covering down until the plaster has all 
settled to the bottom. The plaster in this case will 
absorb the ammonia, and the precipitate may be con¬ 
veyed away at a small expense. A much smaller 
quantity of charcoal would answer than of plaster, but 
in this instance the application would be far more 
troublesome and tedious. Those who live near can 
cart it away in casks, and place it in their compost 
heaps, adding charcoal, as before directed for ammo- 
niacal applications. Land already containing char¬ 
coal may be watered with this liquor, by mixing it 
with eight times its measure of water, but jf put on in 
its full strength, the vegetation then in the soil will be 
destroyed by it. This effect is, I believe, called by our 
farmers burning. I presume, if a man were to be 
stuffed with food, however nutritious in moderate ap¬ 
plications, until he were filled to the mouth, he would 
die under the operation; just so it is with vegetation, 
when over-fed with alimentary food. 
I would suggest to one or more of our enterprising 
