148 
PRESERVATION AND APPLICATION OF MANURES.-NO. 4 
PRESERVATION AND APPLICATION OF 
MANURES.—No. 4. 
The distinguished chemist Boussingault “‘esti¬ 
mates the solid and liquid excrements of a man at 
618 pounds per annum, containing 18 pounds of 
nitrogen—a quantity sufficient to grow 836 pounds 
of wheat.” This would be equivalent to three 
barrels of flour. Now, supposing there are only 
ten millions of adults, producing each nitrogen 
sufficient for three barrels of flour; and ten mil¬ 
lions more producing only half that quantity, we 
should have of this indispensable ingredient, enough 
to produce, annually, forty-five millions of barrels 
of flour, being more than two barrels for each per¬ 
son, large and small. If the alkalies, and other in¬ 
organic elements which are shown above to be so 
essential to the preservation of the fertility of our 
soil, should exist, only to half the extent of nitro¬ 
gen in human excrements, the advantages of saving 
and applying them to our soil would be unspeaka¬ 
bly great. In suggesting a plan, by which such 
immense benefits can be secured to the country, and 
which will for ever prevent our soil from deteriorat¬ 
ing, and even reinstate that which has been, in a 
great degree, exhausted by improvident cultivation, 
I cannot do better than copy from the Report of 
the Commissioner of Patents, for the present year, 
the following extract, accompanied with the sug¬ 
gestion, that this plan, instead of being confined to 
our large cities, ought to be extended to every town, 
village, hamlet, and private residence. In a word, 
that it should be so extensive as to save all the hu¬ 
man excrements, solid and liquid, excepting, of 
course, those which are deposited on cultivated 
fields by work hands, during their daily avocations. 
“ VVe will make a simple suggestion to the pub¬ 
lic, without charge. Insert under each aperture of 
a privy, drawers made of wood, iron or metal, two 
feet wide, two feet deep, and any required length, 
with handles at each end, so that they can be as 
easily drawn out and handled as those of a desk. 
Put into these drawers peat, mixed with a little 
plaster of Paris or charcoal-dust, mixed with plas¬ 
ter, to the depth of six inches or a foot. Thus ar¬ 
ranged, not the slightest unpleasant smell would 
arise from the privy ; and every week or fortnight 
carts, with light boxes in them, should call at the 
house, and the drawers be emptied into them. In 
this way the yards would be purified of a shocking 
nuisance, and vast quantities of poudrette could 
be weekly manufactured, for which any company 
could well afford to pay the city of New York 
$100,000 per annum.” 
For this highly useful suggestion, the Commis¬ 
sioner of Patents gives credit to the American Agri¬ 
culturist, Volume 4th, page 116. 
Where peat is not to be had, charcoal-dust and 
plaster of Paris, or either of them, may, perhaps, an¬ 
swer the purpose of fixing the ammonia of the ex¬ 
crements. But this is a matter that will soon be 
ascertained by experience, and the aid of a good 
chemist. The drawers under the privies must of 
course be water-tight, so that no part of the liquid 
excrements may be lost, for these are the most valu¬ 
able parts of them. 
If the great city of New York should take the 
lead, in the introduction of a practice which is des¬ 
tined to be of such immense benefit to the country, 
she will be entitled to the gratitude of the whole 
nation. She will, at the same time that she is ren¬ 
dering an immense service to the agricultural inte¬ 
rest, free herself from a most horrid nuisance, un¬ 
der which, in common with all other crowded cities, 
she is daily suffering the most serious evils. Next 
to the manures, which may be derived from human 
excrements, are, perhaps, ashes. These contain, 
not only alkalies in large quantities, but also most 
of the mineral elements, which enter into the com¬ 
position of every description of plants. These are 
the very substances, 'which, as Liebig has abun¬ 
dantly shown, are by far the most important ingre¬ 
dients in all good soils. Other elements, such as 
oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, are neces¬ 
sary, but these, except the latter, are abundantly 
supplied from the atmosphere; and it has been shown 
above, that the deficiency in the supply of nitrogen 
from the atmosphere can be more than compensated 
by a careful saving of human excrements and the 
manufacture of them into poudrette. But the sup¬ 
plying of our soil with the alkalies, and other 
mineral elements, which exist so abundantly in the 
ashes of all kinds of wood and plants, is an object 
of great importance, and one which demands the 
utmost care and circumspection. Not only should 
the ashes be saved, which result from the -wood 
consumed as fuel, but also all that result from the 
burning of logs, brush, &c., in clearing plantations 
and clearing up woodland pastures. If not conve¬ 
nient to haul and spread these ashes immediately 
upon fields, w T hich require to be furnished writh al¬ 
kalies and other mineral elements, they should be 
placed under cover, otherwise the rains, snows, and 
dews will dissolve the alkalies, combined with the 
ashes, and thus these highly useful substances 
will be carried down into the earth and all lost to 
the purposes of agriculture. 
Ashes are frequently leached for the purpose of 
making potash, which is.used in large quantities in 
manufacturing soap and glass. Soda may be ap¬ 
plied to the purpose of making soap and glass as 
well as potash. And as this substance can easily 
be procured from sea-water, or common salt, Lie¬ 
big observes, that by substituting it for potash, in 
making soap and glass, “ it enables us to return to 
our fields all their potash—a most valuable and im¬ 
portant manure—in the form of ashes.” Leached 
ashes, though deprived of their potash, still con¬ 
tain several mineral elements, which render them 
very valuable for manure, and they should be care¬ 
fully applied to soils deficient in such elements. 
Crushed or ground bones are also a very valua¬ 
ble manure, particularly‘for grain crops. Liebig 
says, “ one pound of bones contains as much phos¬ 
phoric acid as a hundred weight of grain.” Every 
pound of bone-dust, applied to a soil, is therefore 
equivalent to the production of a bushel and two 
thirds of wheat. So valuable a manure and so 
easily applied ought not to be neglected. Phospho¬ 
ric acid readily combines with the alkalies, soda 
and potash; and the alkaline earths, lime and mag¬ 
nesia, forming phosphates. Liebig in the 16th of 
the letters above referred to, says, “ My recent re¬ 
searches into the constituent ingredients of our 
cultivated fields have led me to the conclusion that 
