116 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
STEAMED BONE. 
Notwithstanding every piece of bone 
in the animal that is large enough for 
buttons or knife handles is used for that 
purpose there is a large accumulation of 
knuckle bones and bones from the head 
that are put into tanks and thoroughly 
cooked to extract the grease and glue. 
This cooking not only puts the bone in 
a better condition for grinding but it 
also adds to its value as a fertilizer. The 
value of steamed bone depends entirely 
on how the material is graded when it 
goes into the tank. The average steamed 
bone will analyze 3 per cent, ammonia 
and 45 to 50 per cent bone phosphate of 
lime. Where the bone is carefully sep¬ 
arated the analysis will average 1 to 1 1-2 
per cent, ammonia and 60 per cent, bone 
phosphate of lime. The latter is usually 
termed degelatinized steamed bone. 
RAW BONE. 
The demand for bones by the farmers 
has caused the ends of the earth to be 
searched for this article. For years the 
plains of the West gave up carloads after 
carloads of buffalo bones. South Amer¬ 
ica and India have also been the source 
of large quantities of bones. These 
fields however, have been pretty thor¬ 
oughly gone over so that the supply of 
bones from that source in the future 
promises to be very small indeed. At 
present the raw bone that is on the mar¬ 
ket is made from bones gathered from 
the small butcher shops and slaughter 
pens scattered over the country. A car¬ 
load here and a carload there, not very 
much at any one place but all together 
making a considerable quantity. 
While the raw bone analyzes higher 
in ammonia than the steamed bone it is 
not considered as valuable owing to the 
fact that the grease and glue is still in 
the bone. The grease retards decompo¬ 
sition consequently delays the -time when 
the plant food will become available. For 
crops that are a long time growing or 
for fertilizing orchards the raw bone is 
not only a good source of ammonia but 
also of phosphoric acid. On crops that 
are grown in 60 or 90 days raw bone 
would be of very little use as a fertilizer. 
GARBAGE TANKAGE. 
The demand for fertilizer of all kinds 
and the continued increased prices of 
same has caused the manufacturer, chem¬ 
ist and any one interested to be on the 
alert for some material which would fur¬ 
nish plant food. 
One of the articles that comes in this 
line is garbage tankage. For years the 
garbage of the large cities has been gath¬ 
ered and dumped into waste places, the 
sea or burned. Now nearly all the up-to- 
date cities have large garbage plants 
where all the garbage of the city is gath¬ 
ered together; The tin cans, glass, china- 
ware, rags, etc., are all separated from 
the kitchen garbage. This latter is put 
into large tanks along with any dead an¬ 
imals, spoiled fish and meat and cooked in 
the same manner as the blood and bone 
in the slaughter houses. The grease is 
skimmed off and the residue pressed and 
dried and we have what is known as gar¬ 
bage tankage. This tankage is usually 
low in plant food containing 3 to 4 per 
cent ammonia and 5 to 6 per cent bone 
phosphate of lime and about 1 per cent, 
potash. The farmers who live close to 
the city have an opportunity to get their 
source of ammonia cheap, as the price the 
tankage is sold at is usually below the 
market price of ammoniates of higher 
grade. It is also a cheap source of am¬ 
monia where freight rates are not high. 
Whenever the goods are shipped any dis- 
