152 
CITY MANURES.—NO. V. 
draft will be produced, and the cotton forced up 
the pipe through the cone with a velocity in pro¬ 
portion to the force applied. 
Persons wishing to adopt this apparatus, or to 
purchase a right for manufacturing and vending 
the article for towns or counties, can communicate 
with the agent S. W. Dewey, 109 Front street, 
New York. 
We are favored, this month, with a continuation 
of Mr. Partridge’s very valuable articles on City 
Manures; and we entreat the particular attention 
of our farmers to them. We trust, also, that our 
city papers will copy these numbers, for they can 
not possibly insert more useful or relevant matter 
for their readers. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
CITY MANURES.—No. V. 
I have already given our farmers an account of 
ten highly-fertilizing materials hitherto thrown 
away in the cities of New York and Brooklyn. I 
shall proceed now to bring to their notice two other 
such materials, viz., wood saw-dust and urine. 
I lately read an article in the Bath and Chelten¬ 
ham Gazette, published in the city of Bath, Eng¬ 
land, that a Professor Daniels had taken a patent 
for a new compost, composed of wood saw-dust, 
charcoal, lime, and a small quantity of bitumen. 
It stated he had secured patents in England, 
France, Germany, and this country. If any re¬ 
liance can be placed on the statement given in that 
paper of its fertilizing power, it must far exceed 
all other known composts. It stated that the pro¬ 
fessor had taken a given quantity of land, on which 
he had raised wheat four years in succession, in¬ 
creasing the product every year. Our farmers 
must be aware that this has ever been considered 
impossible. The first year the land was in its 
usual condition, and the crop was twenty-six 
bushels to the acre; the second year he applied 
some of his compost, and the crop was thirty-six 
bushels; the third year he added more of his 
compost, and the crop was forty-six bushels; the 
fourth year he gave more of the compost, and 
the crop was fifty-six bushels. He expressed him¬ 
self confident of bringing the crop up as high as 
one hundred bushels to the acre. 
Our farmers on Long Island, and in New Jer¬ 
sey, must be aware, that their only chance of 
making money by farming, will be by an increase 
of crops; for our railroads will enable distant 
farmers to send their produce to our markets, at a 
very trifling cost of transit. Those of our farmers, 
therefore, who are wise, will avail themselves of 
every means of increasing their crops, as the only 
chance of breasting the competition with distant 
opponents, who produce from new soils, on land 
of one tenth the value. 
It has been long known that decayed wood, fre¬ 
quently found on wood land, was much valued by 
the horticulturists. I often had it collected, in 
England, for my own garden; but as it was not 
very abundant there, it was always used on the 
flower-beds. 
From the number of saw-mills at work in the 
cities of New York and Brooklyn, the annual sup¬ 
ply of wood saw-dust must be very large ; and I 
would advise some of our enterprising farmers to 
collect and try it in their compost heaps, adding 
slacked lime and fine charcoal. The lime is ap¬ 
parently applied to cause a more rapid decomposi¬ 
tion of the saw-dust, and to neutralize any acid it 
may contain; but it will be seen, in the following 
article on urine, that when in the soil it plays an 
important part in promoting vegetation. I would 
advise our farmers to put the above-named com¬ 
post into their barn-yards and hog-sties, where it 
will not only undergo a rapid change, but the 
charcoal will absorb and retain all the ammonia 
now lost by evaporation. If a portion of the saw¬ 
dust should be the product of pitch-pine timber, 
no bitumen need be added; but when this can not 
be obtained, a small quantity of crushed rosin or 
pitch may be added to the compost heap. 
I shall proceed to bring to your notice the urine 
thrown away in our cities. In the first place, I 
will show you the component parts of vegetable 
matter, and' of carbonate of ammonia. By com¬ 
paring the two,, you will readily appreciate the 
importance of saving every drop of urine from your 
own families and barn-yards, as well as collecting 
it from our cities. In this explanation I must ne¬ 
cessarily use scientific terms, as we have no com¬ 
mon terms in our language by which to express 
their meaning. By comparison, however, the 
terms will show you that the component parts of 
vegetation and of carbonate of ammonia are the 
same, excepting about eight per cent, of the solid 
portion of vegetation. 
The average elementary portion of vegetables 
consists of about 480 parts of carbon, 65 of hydro- 
geD, 369 of oxygen, 40 of nitrogen, and about 46 
of solid matter, in 1,000 parts. 
Carbonate of ammonia contains, in 100 parts, 
about 50 parts carbonic gas, 30 parts of ammonia, 
20 parts of water. Carbonic gas contains carbon 
and oxygen; the ammonia contains hydrogen and 
nitrogen. Thus we perceive that carbonate of 
ammonia contains within itself the elementary 
portions of all vegetable products. There is no 
other known substance containing within itself all 
these elements, and hence is derived its wonderful 
fertilizing power. 
Stale urine contains a large portion of ammonia 
and of ammoniacal salts, wdiich are mostly lost by 
evaporation, as it will continue to do, unless some 
material be combined with it capable of retaining 
the ammonia. Charcoal is undoubtedly the best 
substance for this purpose, as it will take up and 
retain within its pores more ammonia than any 
other known material. 
Charcoal is a valuable product in the soil, inde¬ 
pendent of its retaining ammonia when presented 
to it by human agency. “ It absorbs in large 
quantity into its pores, the gaseous substances and 
vapors which exist in the atmosphere.” It sep¬ 
arates from water any decayed animal matters or 
coloring substances which it may hold in solution. 
It also holds moisture with a tenacity greater than 
any other known material. 
Our farmers may tell me they are well aware 
of the value of urine, but may ask how are thev 
