FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
113 
acid forming the white crystals, known 
as sulphate of ammonia. The crystals 
are then taken out and by means of cen¬ 
trifugal forces are dried and are then 
ready for the market. 
While a large amount of sulphate of 
ammonia is made from coal in the pro¬ 
cess of making coke there is a large quan¬ 
tity made from bone while making bone 
charcoal. The process is practically the 
same as when it is made from coke. 
The difference being that the bone is 
used in the retorts instead of the coal. 
After the bone is treated in this way it 
is used in the sugar refineries for puri¬ 
fying sugar. 
NITRATE OF POTASH. 
Nitrate of potash is another very high 
grade chemical and has the advantage 
of not only containing a large percent¬ 
age of ammonia but is very high in pot¬ 
ash and this makes it doubly beneficial to 
the grower. Nitrate of potash which is 
usually called salt peter is found in In¬ 
dia, Egypt, Persia and Spain where it 
frequently appears as a white incrusta¬ 
tion on the soil and is sometimes mixed 
with the soil to some depth. To extract 
the nitrate the earth is leached with water 
and the solution evaporated either by the 
sun or artificial heat. This develops the 
impure crystals which are exported as 
impure salt-petre. Nitrate of potash is 
formed wherever nitrogenized organic 
substances decompose in the presence of 
potassium hydrate. It is also manufac¬ 
tured artificially by exposing to the air 
a mixture of animal matter with wood 
ashes and lime moistened with stable 
drainings or stale urine. 
The greater part of the nitrate of pot¬ 
ash, however, is made from nitrate of 
soda. The recrystallized nitrate of soda 
is dissolved in water and an equivalent 
quantity of potassium chloride, is added 
to the mixture and the solution boiled 
down. While the water is hot the chlo¬ 
ride of sodium is deposited and separated 
from the nitrate of potash which crystal¬ 
lizes while cooling. 
Any one who has ever seen nitrate of 
potash can recognize it at once by the pe¬ 
culiar form in which it crystallizes. It 
forms into long six-sided prisms and 
when freed from impurities is nearly 
transparent and has a cool and slightly 
bitter taste. Nitrate of Potash is very 
soluble in water, the solvent power of 
water increasing as its temperature rises. 
While ioo parts of water at zero dis¬ 
solves only 13.33 parts, at 100 degrees it 
dissolves 246 parts. 
Nitrate of potash is used for a good 
many other things besides fertilizers. It 
is used in the manufacture of gunpowder, 
matches and as a preservative for meats. 
The pure nitrate of potash contains 13.87 
per cent, nitrogen which is equivalent to 
16.84 per cent, ammonia and 45.31 per 
cent, potash as K2O. 
Until within the last ten years all the 
nitrate of potash used in the United 
States was imported. It is however, 
manufactured in the United States now 
in limited quantities by the sheep dip 
manufacturers. It comes to them as a 
byproduct in the process of extracting the 
nicotine from the tobacco stems. For 
years the nitrate of potash would settle 
in the cans of sheep dip and became a 
source of' annoyance until a process for 
eliminating it was discovered. At first 
this deposit was considered to be a use¬ 
less product and a large quantity of it 
was offered to the writer at a very nom¬ 
inal price, which was quicklv accepted, 
but he was unable to renew the contract 
two years later when the true nature of 
the goods was known to the manufactur- 
8 
