120 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
their hands which were very hard to get 
rid of and learned men were put to work 
to devise a means by which the nicotine 
could be extracted and the remaining 
stem handled without loss to the com¬ 
pany. This work resulted in the pulver¬ 
ized or ground tobacco stems that is now 
on the market which is very high in pot¬ 
ash and contains a good percentage of 
ammonia. This was somewhat of a sur¬ 
prise to everyone as no one supposed that 
the tobacco stem could be so manipulated 
as to give an analysis of 3 per cent, am¬ 
monia and 10 per cent, potash, yet this is, 
a fact and today hundreds of tons of 
ground tobacco stems are used and it is 
considered one of the best sources of am¬ 
monia and potash. It is easily applied 
and quickly available. 
Besides the information gathered above 
we should take a lesson from what has 
been said, not only from a fertilizer view, 
but from an economical standpoint. There 
are only a few of the products mentioned 
above that are not byproducts. The great 
wealth of the fertilizer business is from 
byproducts or things we are now saving 
that were formerly thrown away. If one 
goes to the slaughter house he cannot 
help being impressed with the carefulness 
with which everything is saved even to 
the minutest piece of bone, drop of blood 
and even the hairs. Everything is pre¬ 
served to add to the profits of the com¬ 
pany. If our growers and farmers were 
as careful in preserving everything on 
the farm as the slaughter house people 
are to save and care for the waste pro¬ 
ducts, they would be able to live closer 
at home and not have to ask the fertilizer 
men for credit for his yearly supply of 
fertilizers. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Kilgore—I would like to know 
if there is not a commercial value on 
our muck beds on account of the am¬ 
monia there is in muck. It seems to 
me there should be plenty of by-pro¬ 
ducts to render the investigation of 
this phase of the question profitable. 
Mr. Painter—The problem has been 
looked into, but the trouble is that 
there is no main product that can be 
derived from the muck that would 
make the by-product profitable. There 
is about 3 per cent, ammonia in a ton 
of muck when it is thoroughly dried, 
but that ammonia is inert; almost as 
much so as in the leather. 
We are getting sulphate of ammonia 
in a ton of coal varying from one to 
one and one-half per cent. I do not 
from coal. The amount of ammonia 
think we can ever get any ammonia 
from the muck except to use it on the 
farm and let the ammonia be freed by 
decomposition. Lime applied to the 
muck will hasten that decomposition. 
Adjourned. 
