SUPPLEMENT TO THE BUBAL NEW-YOBXEB. 
C J 
SUPPLEMENT. 
THE ANIMAL FERTILIZING PRODUCTS 
OF LARGE CITIES. 
A large proportion of the ec, turnercial fer¬ 
tilizers knot- u as “animal fertilizers,” i,e. those 
whose chief ingredients are bone, blood and 
meat, are made of the refuse from the 
slaughter-houses and the butcher shops of our 
large cities. In the city of New York and its 
vicinity, the complete utilization of the refuse 
of slaughter-houses, etc., is the result of slow 
growth. The business has developed from 
small beginnings to an industry of consider¬ 
able importance and magnitude. Until a few 
years ago, the offal and a large proportion of 
the bones were carried out to sea, if they were 
not dropped surreptitiously in the bay; and 
the blood was permitted to run through the 
the gutters into the river. One of the first 
firms who converted the worse than wasted 
offal into a valuable product, was Rafferty & 
Williams, who contioiled the slaughtering of 
cattle at the East side abbatoir—an immense 
slaughter-house extending along the East 
River from 42d to 47th streets. The begin¬ 
ning was made by the manufacture of a lot 
of live tons of fertilizer for a friend, and in 
the second year ODly 100 tons were made. 
The entire residue of the slaughter-houses 
and butcher shops of the city is now convert¬ 
ed into commercial fertilizers, or some more 
valuable product. As a matter of course, the 
cattle are mainly from the West, and are 
brought to the abbatoirs in cars, or on trans¬ 
fer boats fitted up expressly for the purpose. 
They are then penned and slaughtered. The 
blood is collected in reservoirs, and pat in 
barrels for convenience in handliug. The 
offal is also put in barrels, and with the blood 
is taken to the rendering and concentrating 
factories. The blood is put in large tanks, 
where the serum is carefully separated from 
the flbrine and converted into blood albumen, 
used for clarifying sugar: the residue—the 
remaining flbrine, the clotted blood—is pump¬ 
ed by a peculiar apparatus into a large iron 
tank called n digester, the top of which is 
shown at Fig. 899 (first page). It Is coagulated 
by steam, and comes from the digester ithe 
lower portion is shown at Fig. 400), a coarse, 
dark colored mass. It is then put into sacks, 
and subjected to a powerful pressure in a 
hydraulic press, shown at Fig. 401. Its bulk 
is largely reduced, and the water residue is as 
clear as possible. From the presses it goes to 
the driers (Fig. 40:2), and from them it comes 
out a red, snull'-llke powder ready for screen¬ 
ing, bagging, and shipping to the fertilizer 
factories. 
The offal, the intestines from which the exe- 
ereta are carefully removed and thrown away, 
the lungs, etc., are put into digesters similar 
to those used for the blood. See (Figs. 399 
and 400.) The grease and oil are drawn from 
these tanks into clarifyiug vats, and arc sold 
to be converted into—some say—oleomarga¬ 
rine. The residue known as “meat scrap,” 
goes into the driers (Fig, 402), and comes from 
them in the form of a brown powder. 
A small proportion of the bones comes from 
the slaughter houses, but by far the larger 
part is collected by wagons which make a tour 
of the city every morning. These bones are 
at once put into a digester similar to that 
shown at (Fig. 899 aud 400) and treutod to 
what is knowu as the “steam process.” The 
advantage of treating the green bouts to this 
process is said to be very great. From the di¬ 
gester the bones go iuto the driers (Fig. 408) 
and come from them a muss of dust aud pieces 
of bone, looking like a pile of ashes or dirt. 
The stuff is then put into the bone mill, 
shown at (Fig. 403), after which it passes 
through the screener (Fig. 404). The finest 
product is then ready for bagging, while the 
coarser siftings are returned to the mill and 
ground over again. Great care is taken to re¬ 
duce the meal to a uniform fineness. The 
bone meal, the dried blood and the meat are 
by various ingenious processes bagged and 
shipped to the fertilizing manufactures to be 
mixed, treated with the various acids, and 
converted into “complete” or “special” com¬ 
mercial fertilizers. 
The fact is apparent to every intelligent 
farmer that all kinds of fertilizers composed 
of the same proportions of nitrogen, phos¬ 
phoric acid and potash are not alike. One 
form of nitrogen, for instance, may be worth 
live or six times as much as another, ami the 
same is true to even a greater exteut with re¬ 
gard to phosphoric acid aud potash. 
It is, therefore, a matter of great importance 
that farmers should know not only the ele¬ 
ments contained in the fertilizer, as revealed 
by analysis, but also the origin of these 
elements. 
There is no place where the conditions are 
so favorable for the production of commer¬ 
cial fertilizers in which are found all forms of 
plaDt food iu available form, as in a large city 
like New York. The utilization of the refuse 
from a large city by its conversion iu fertil¬ 
izers, is an incalculable benefit to the resident 
of the city, the farmer and to the whole 
country. 
Although most large cities have a more or 
less perfect Bystem of utilizing their offal, 
night soil, etc., by its conversion into fertili¬ 
zers, yet very much of it is permitted to go to 
waste. The saving and utilization of these 
waste products are problems which should 
attract the attention of our agricultural 
chemists. It is estimated that in the City of 
New York alone, 30,000 tons of ammoniacal 
material, 15,000 tons of night soil, and 0,500 
tons of offal are collected each year, and yet 
it is probable that even this enormous produc¬ 
tion is but a small proportion of the annual 
product. Much of the above information was 
furnished us by Messrs Williams, Clark & Co., 
and we are indebted to them for the privilege 
of making the drawings from which the cuts 
in this number were made. 
THE ELEMENTS OF PLANT FOOD. 
HOW MANY. THEIR IMPORTANCE AND 
WHENCE DERIVED. | 
All plants that grow and perfect seeds, 
wherever or for whatever purpose grown, 
live aud thrive on certain elementary sub¬ 
stances which, var) ing in combinations, go to 
build up their various parts. Although ten 
times as much is used of some of these sub¬ 
stances as of others, it would be absurd to say 
that one is more important than another; for 
the plant can thrive no more without the very 
small quantity of the one, than without the 
bulk of the other, and were the least of these 
entirely withheld the plant could only dwindle 
and ultimately starve to death. 
These elements are divided into two great 
classes; the volatile, or those which are driven 
off when the plant is burned; and the fixed or 
permanent, those which remain in the ash. 
Altogether they number just a baker’s dozen. 
The volatile elements are carbon, oxygen, 
nitrogen, hydrogen, sulphur and phosphorus, 
and these constitute more than uinteeen- 
twentieths of the bulk or weight of all plants. 
The fixed elements are silica, chlorine, potas¬ 
sium, magnesium, sodium and iron, the last 
five being metals. Of these 18 elemeuts not 
one is ever taken into the circulation of the 
plant iu its simple or elementary form; but 
iu varying combinations with each other, 
oxygen being present in every combination, 
so that oxygen, if not the most important, 
is the most universally used. From 90 
to 95 per cent, of all plant, and in some 
even a larger per cent, is composed of the 
three elements carbon, oxygen and hydro¬ 
gen, and all of these are abundantly, and 
probably mainly, if not entirely, supplied by 
air and water; so that with a good water sup¬ 
ply, the farmer has no occasion to take thought 
of these. Of the other ID, six enter the plant in 
such infinitesimalquantities,and existsoabun- 
dautly in almost every soil, that they need 
not bo considered by the farmer. The re¬ 
maining four—lime, phosphorus, potash and 
nitrogen—constitute the great bulk of the ash 
or fixed part of plants, and of these lime is a 
common ingredient of almost every soil, and 
very seldom in quantity uot sufficient for the 
want of the plants. Though lime alone, when 
applied, sometimes produces wonderful re¬ 
sults, it is probably more because of its solvent 
action, thus liberating and rendering avail¬ 
able other elements already in the soil, but 
locked up iu insoluble compounds, than 
because of auy deficiency of lime itself iu the 
soil. There are then left only three ele¬ 
ments about which the farmer need to take 
serious thought; and on these three rest the 
whole structure of successful agriculture. 
They are essentially important, because they 
are omst largely used of the fixed elemeuts; 
because without them, iuabuudauce,uo plant 
enu produce a paying crop, aud because with 
them the plaut assumes great vigor and is 
enabled to throw out its roots and leaves in 
great profusion to search for and obtain the 
other elements necessary to perfect growth. 
Though existing in nature far beyoud the 
needs of plants o'* animals, they are very 
liable to become so exhausted iu the cultivat¬ 
ed fields, as to be below the necessary amount 
for raiding profitable crops. The farmer’s 
study should be how to husband, to the best 
advantage, the amount uow iu the soil, aud 
how toobtaiu, from their uatural storehouses, 
enough to keep up the needed quantity. 
Dhosphorus is found in immense quantities 
iu combination with oxygen and various me¬ 
tallic bases, priueipally lime, aluminum aud 
iron, and also largely in sea wrater. Potas¬ 
sium is likewise found with oxygen, in many 
of the rocks, and also with various acids con¬ 
stituting the base of the various poiash salts, 
aud also largely iu sea water. The boundless 
ocean of air is a vast storehouse of nitrogen, 
it constituting four-fifths of its bulk. It also 
exists in lar^e quantities combined with soda 
and potash, and is a eonstaut constituent of 
all bituminous deposits. 
Soils being primarily composed of disinte¬ 
grated and decayed recks and minerals aud 
built up by decayiug vegetation, all virgin 
soils were rich in these three elements of suc¬ 
cessful cropping ; but long-continued crop¬ 
ping, and the removal of the crops, and ex¬ 
posure of tbe soil without vegetation to the 
action of the sun, air, frosts and rain, have 
reduced these fertile elemeuts until many 
soils, and in the older States most soils, have 
some one or more of these so exhausted that 
they no longer produce maximum crops, and 
many fail to produce paying ones. Which 
element is deficient depends upon the charact¬ 
er of tbe soil and of the leading crops which 
have been grown upon it. 
What the farmer now needs to know is, not 
what has become of the fertility taken away 
from the soil and wasted, but which element 
is needed to restore his soil’s productiveness, 
and whence can he most easily and obeaply 
obtain the needed Bupply. The only practical 
way to obtain an answer to the first of these 
inquiries, is by an appeal to the soil itself, by 
a series of simple and easily made experiments. 
He should apply to his field, separately and in 
combination, such fertilizers as contain each 
of the three elements, and carefully watch 
the results. Lentil he has sach answers in 
such numbers and such forms as to be reliable, 
the safest way is to apply such fertilizers as 
contaiu an adequate amount of each for the 
production of a full crop; and so long as he 
has to pay the freight, and for handling, there 
is no ecouomy in buying any but the highest 
grade, always insisting that he shall receive 
just what he pays for. 
As to the second question, where can he best 
obtain these elements:—Agricultural chemists 
and manufacturers of manures are devoting 
much thought and attention, and through their 
efforts and discoveries, the supply is constantly 
increasing, and as a result, the prices are be¬ 
ing reduced. 
The present available sources of nitrogen 
are the rich manures that should be made on 
every farm by the feeding of forage crops, 
coarse grain?, and oil meal, cotton seed meai, 
bran aad other albuminous foods; sulphate of 
ammonia; nitrate of soda; guano; fish scrap; 
castor pomace; dried blood, and tankage. The 
sources of phosphorus are the bones of ani¬ 
mals, the mineral phosphates, to be found 
scattered all over the known world; also 
guanos, and in home-made manure. Pot¬ 
ash is also found in the manure; in wood 
ashes; in the various potash salts, now so 
abundantly found in Germany. The supply 
of all three of these fertilizers is very much 
more abundant now than a score of years 
ago, and the prices are scarcely one half what 
they were then, and as no doubt with the in¬ 
creased demand, other sources will be discov¬ 
ered, no one need have any fears that the 
supply will be exhausted, or that the price 
will advance beyond a point at which it will 
pay to use them. 
PHOSPHORIC MANURE3. 
PHOSPHORUS. 
What is it# In what form is it useful to 
the plants? From what sources is it obtained f 
Phosphorus, so essential to the growth of 
every plant and animat, as usually seen is a 
yellowish, translucent, wax like substance, 
intensely poisonous to both animals aud plants; 
it is luminous in the dark and is largely used 
in the manufacture of friction matches. In 
this form, it has uo iuterest to the farmer; 
but when exposed to the air it absorbs oxy- 
geu, becoming phosphoric acid, and as such 
it is of the utmost importance because a neces¬ 
sary food of every plant. It exists in most 
soils aud in all plants, and constitutes about 
85 per cent. of the bones of all animals. It is 
usually found in connection with lime, alum 
or iron, but mostly with lime, in which form 
the farmer always applies it to his fields. 
Phosphoric acid consists of two atoms of 
phosphorus and five of oxygen, and, as such, 
it is perfectly soluble in water, and when so 
dissolved each atom of phosphoric acid w ill 
have united with three atoms of water. It 
readily unites with lime, forming the phos¬ 
phates which are at once the most interesting 
aud important compounds to the farmer as 
well as the chemist. If to this solution an 
atom of lime bo added, it will immediately 
unite with the atom of phosphoric acid, there¬ 
by displacing oue atom of the water, but re¬ 
taining the other two aud remaining perfect¬ 
ly soluble. This is the monoculcic or one- 
lime phosphate, eoutainiug oue atom of 
lime, oue of phosphoric acid and two of 
water, it' a further atom of lime be added it 
will unite with the compound already formed, 
thereby displacing another atom of water, 
thereby forming tbedicalcic or two lime phos 
phate; that is, two atoms of lime to one of phos¬ 
phoric acid and one of water, and as such it 
becomes insoluble in water, but is still soluble 
in various weak acids. If still another atom 
of lime be added it will displace the remaining 
atom of water, takirg its place, thereby form¬ 
ing what is known as tricalelc, or three lime 
phosphate, that is, three atoms of lime united 
with one atom of phosphoric acid and no 
water at all. In this form it is insoluble in 
water, and of no more use as plant food than 
though it did not exist. This is called basic 
phosphate, and is the form in which phos¬ 
phoric acid is found in the bones of all ani¬ 
mals and in pbosphatic recks, and is the only 
one which interests the farmer because in it, 
so far as at present known, is his only avail¬ 
able supply of phosphoric acid, aud it is com¬ 
monly known simply as, 
PHOSPHATE OF LIME. 
This is an ingredient of nearly all the guan¬ 
os, and is also available to the farmer in 
many other forms. At least 55 per cent of 
the bones of all animals is pure phosphate of 
lime. Many thousands of acres in Sooth 
Carolina are underlaid or filled with nodules 
of this compound in company w ith the fossil¬ 
ized bones of both land and marine animals. 
The West Indies have large desposits of rock 
phosphate?, many of them very rich in phos 
phate of lime. Canada has large deposits 
of mineral phosphate of lime called apatite, 
which is very rich in phosphoric acid. Spain 
has also very extensive and very rich mines 
of mineral phosphate. It also exists in greater 
or less quantities in oearly every country of 
Europe, and also in California and several 
of the Pacific Islands. 
So when we consider that it is but a com¬ 
paratively few years since the great value of 
phosphatic manures has been recognized, and 
active search has been made for the mineral 
phosphate^ and so many mines have been 
found, we must conclude that very many 
more will be fouud aud that from this time 
forward the price of phosphatic manures 
must become continually less; and we need 
have no fears of the supply ever falling short 
of the demand. 
BONE PHOSHHATES. 
The bones of every animal that dies or is 
slaughtered, aggregating thousands of tons 
annually, are a valuable source of plant food, 
and should be carefully preserved, prepared 
and returned tothe soil as a fertilizer, to in¬ 
crease the productiveness of our fields. The 
hones of the ox contain 57 per cent, of the 
phosphate of lime, while the average of all 
animals would contain more than 50 per cent, 
the remainder being made up of gelatine, car¬ 
bonate and sulphate of lime, and other mat¬ 
ters. The phosphate of limecoutains nearly 
50 per cent, of phosphoric acid. Rut in the 
bone it is iu the tricalcic (three lime) form, 
insoluble, and comparatively unavailable as 
plant food. By being treated with sulphuric 
acid and water, as elsewhere described, it is 
converted into the monocalcic (oue-lime) form, 
is rendered soluble and is the bone superphos¬ 
phate of some; the acidulated bone phosphate 
of others. If made of raw bones, the animal 
matter and gelatin of the bones should give 
the manufactured superphosphate from l 1 .,' to 
three per cent, of ammonia. 
If raw bone, reduced to very fine powder, 
be applied to the soil, it will by its decay and 
the action of the acid of the soil, and by the 
root-action cf vegetation, afford a good deal 
of phosphoric acid to the plants; but scarcely 
fast enough for their wants. If, however, it 
were applied liberally and annually, the avail¬ 
able quantity would soon become sufficient. 
But the question for the farmer to decide is, 
whether the investment ut money iu bone, to 
lie for years idle in the soil, would pay him 
as well as to pay more money for less plant 
food in a more available form, in some of the 
superphosphates. 
SUPERPHOSPHATE 
is phosphate of lime treated with sulphuric 
acid, and thus rendered available as plant 
food. In the form of bone phosphate, mineral 
phosphate, or any other iu which it is found 
uaturally, phosphate of lime is of no more use 
to a plaut than though it did uot exist; so un¬ 
available is it that, though a plant be grow ing 
with its roots in a soil oiue-tenths of which, 
or mure, might be pure phosphate of lime, yet 
it might perish fpr the wautof this very in¬ 
gredient in a form suitable for its food. 
But if these be very Quely ground and 
applied to a soil filled with humus (decaying 
vegetable matter), the acid of this, together 
with the action of uaturul decay, will liberate 
more or less of the phosphoric acid, or at least 
put it iu such a form that the vegetable acids, 
and the action of the living roots will enable 
the plaut to obtain a tardy supply; more es¬ 
pecially is this the case with the phosphate as 
it exists in bone?. 
Here again chemistry comes to the aid alike 
of the plant and tbe farmer, in informing him 
