154 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
It is possible, that, when the ground bones are employed without having 
been first submitted to the commencement of a fermentation, the gelatine 
is gradually decomposed in the ground, and the same result at length pro¬ 
duced; or, we can conceive that water, acting upon the bones, will dissolve 
the gelatine, and transmit it to plants; and in both these cases the influ¬ 
ence of the bones upon vegetation is very great, whether it be considered I 
as a purely nutritive manure, or in the double connexion of a nutritive 
and stimulating substance. 
When bones are calcined in a close vessel, they yield oil and carbonate 
of ammonia; the proportion of the phosphate is not sensibly diminished; 
but the gelatine is decomposed. There remains after the operation from 
sixty-six to seventy-two per cent of the weight of the bones employed. This 
residue, broken and pulverized with care, is of great use fn the process of 
refining sugar. After having been used in this process, and become im¬ 
pregnated with ox-blood and animal carbon, I have found it to be one of 
the best manures which I could employ for trefoil and clover. It should 
be scattered with the hand upon the plants, when the vegetation begins 
to be developed in the spring. 
Some of the dry parts of animals, as the horns,- hoofs, and claws ap¬ 
proach closely to bones in the nature of their constituent principles; but 
the proportions of these vary prodigiously. In such parts, gelatine con¬ 
stitutes the largest portion; and for this reason they are more esteemed 
as manure than the bones. M. Merat Guillot has found but twenty-seven 
per cent of phosphate of lime in the horn of a stag, and M. Hatchett, by 
an analysis of five hundred grains of the horn of an ox, gained only one- 
fifth part of earthy residuum, of which a little less than one half was phos¬ 
phate of lime. 
The clippings and parings of horns form an excellent manure, of which 
the effect is prolonged during a succession of years, owing to'the difficulty 
with which water penetrates them, and the little tendency they have to 
ferment. 
A very good manure is likewise formed from wool. According to the 
ingenious experiments of M. Hatchett, hair, feathers, and wool are only 
particular combinations of gelatine with a substance analogous to albumen; 
water can only dissolve them by means of fermentation, which takes place 
slowly, and after a long time 
One of the most surprizing instances of fertile vegetation that I have 
ever seen, is that of a field in the neighborhood of Montpelier, belonging 
to a manufacturer of wdollen blankets. The owner of this land causes it 
to be dressed every year with the .sweepings of his workshops; and the 
harvests of corn and fodder which it produces are-astonishing. 
It is well known, that the hairs of wool transpire a fluid which hardens 
upon their surface, but which possesses the property of being easily solu¬ 
ble in water. This substance has received the name of animal sweat; the 
water in which wool has been washed contain so much of it, as to make 
it very valuable as a manure. 
I saw, thirty years since, a wool merchant in Montpelier, who had pla¬ 
ced his wash-house for wool in the midst of a field, a great part of which 
he had transformed into a garden. In watering his vegetables he had 
used no other water than that of the washings; and the beauty of his pro¬ 
ductions was so great, as to render his garden a place' of general resort. 
The Genoese collect with care, in the south of France, all they can find 
of shreds and rags of woollen fabrics,'to place at the foot of their olive 
trees. 
According to the analysis of M. Vauquelin, this animal sweat is a soapy 
substance, consisting of a base of potash, with an excess oily of matter, and 
containing, besides, some acetate of potash, a little of the carbonate and of 
the muriate of the same base, and a scented animal matter. 
The dung of birds is another very valuable manure; differing from-that 
of quadrupeds in the food’s being better digested; in containing more 
animal matter, being, richer in salts, and affording some of the principles 
which are found in the urine of four footed animals. 
The dung of those sea-fowls, which are so numerous in the islands of 
the Pacific ocean, and of which the excrement furnishes an important-ar¬ 
ticle of commerce with South, America, as, according to the accounts of 
M. Humboldt, they import into Peru fifty shiploads of it annually, con¬ 
tains, besides a great quantity of uric acid partly saturated by ammonia 
and potash, some phosphate of lime, ofapimonia, artd of potash, as well 
as some oily matter. Davy found the dung of a cormorant to contain some 
uric acid. 
The good effects resulting from the use of pigeons’ dung, in our coun¬ 
try, has caused it to be carefully collected. One-hundred parts of this, 
when fresh, yielded to Davy twenty-five parts of matter soluble in water, 
whilst the same, after having undergone putrefaction, gave but eight; 
whence this able chemist concluded with reason, that it was necessary to 
employ it before being fermented. This is a warm manure, and may be 
scattered by the hand before covering the seed; or it may be used’in the 
spring upon strong lands, when vegetation appears languid. 
The excrement of the domestic towl approaches nearly in its qualities 
to that of the pigeon, without, however, possessing the same degree of 
power. It contains also some uric acid, and may be applied to the same 
purposes as pigeons’ dung. 
In the south of France, where they raise many silk-worms, they make 
great use of the larvas, after the silk has been spun from the cqcoons. 
They are spread at the foot of the mulberry and other trees, of which the 
vegetation is in a languishing condition; and this small quantity of manure 
reanimates them surprisingly. Upon distilling some of these larvas, I 
found more ammonia than I have ever met with in any other animal mat¬ 
ter. 
Night soil forms an excellent manure; but farmers allow it to be wasted, 
because it is too active to be employed in its natural state, and they know 
not how either to moderate its action, or to appropriate it during different 
stages of fermentation to the wants of various kinds of plants. 
In Belgium, which has been the cradle of enlightened agriculture, and 
where good inodes of cultivation are continued and constantly improved, 
they make astonishing use of this kind of manure. The first year of its 
decomposition, they cultivate upon the soil to which it is applied, oleagi¬ 
nous plants, such as hemp and flax; and the second year sow the land 
with corn. They likewise mix water with urine, and use it to water the 
fields in the spring when vegetation begins to unfold. This substance is 
likewise dried and scattered upon fields of cabbage. 
The Flemings value this kind of manure so much, that the cities set a 
high rate upon the privilege of disposing of fhe cleansings of their privies; 
and there are,' in each one of them, sworn officers for the assistance of 
those who wish to make purchases. These officers know the degree of 
fermentation,suited to each kind of plant, and to the different periods of 
vegetation. 
We shall find great difficulty in bringing.this branch of industry to the 
same degree of perfection amongst us, that it has arrived-at in Belgium, 
because our farmers do hot realize its importance, and have a repugnance 
to employing this kind of manure. But could they not collect carefully 
all these matters, mix them with lime, plaster, or gravel, till the odor 
was dispelled, and then carry the whole upon the fields? 
Already, in most of our great cities, the, contents of the privies are used 
for forming poudrette; this pulverulent product is sought for by our agri¬ 
culturists, who acknowledge its good effects; let us hope, that, becoming 
more enlightened, they will employ the fecal matter itself, as being more 
rich in nutritive principles, and abounding equally in salts; they can easily 
govern and moderate the too powerful action of this, by fermentation, or 
what is still better, by mixing with it plaster, earth, and other absorbents, 
to correct the odor. 
As dunghills are the riches of the fields, a good agriculturist will neglect 
no means of.forming them; it ought to be his first and daily care, for with¬ 
out dung there is no harvest. The scarcity of dunghills, or what is the 
same thing, the bad state of the-crops, sufficiently proves, the prejudices, 
by which the peasant is every where governed; and the habitual blindness 
vvith which he proceeds in his labors. In our country many of thosewho 
cultivate the land, know only the kinds of straw which.are suitable for fur¬ 
nishing manure, aDd in a dunghill of litter, consider them as acting the 
principal part; whereas they are only feeble accessories. 
According to the experiments of Davy, the straw of barley contains only 
two per cent of substance soluble in water, and having a slight resem¬ 
blance to mucilage; the remainder consists entirely of fibre, which can be 
decomposed only after a long time, and und^r circumstances calculated to 
facilitate the operation. 
I do not believe that there is in the whole vegetable kingdom, an ali¬ 
ment affording so little .nutriment, either for plants or animals, as the dry 
straw of grain; serving, only-to fill the stomachs of the latter ; and furnish¬ 
ing to the former but about one hundredth part of its weight of soluble 
manure.. 
Weeds, leaves of trees, and all the succulent plants which grow so 
abundantly in ditches and waste lands, under hedges, and by the road side, 
if cut or pulled when in flower, and slightly fermented, furnish from twen¬ 
ty to twenty-five times more manure than straw does. These plants, 
carefully collected, furnish to the agriculturist an immense resource for 
enriching his lands. Besides the advantage arising from the manure fur¬ 
nished by these plants, the agriculturist will find account in preventing 
the dissemination of theiy seeds, which, by propagating in the fields, de¬ 
prive the crops of the nourishment of the soil. The turf, that borders 
fields and highways, may be made to answer the same purpose, by cutting 
it up with all the roots and the earth adhering to them, rotting the whole 
in a heap, and afterwards carrying the mass upon-the fields, or what is 
still better, by burning it, and dressing the land with the products of the 
combustion. 
•If straw did not serve as beds for animals, and did not'contribute, at the 
same time, to their health and cleanliness, it would be better to cut the 
ears of corn and leave the stalks in the fields; since they serve only as 
absorbents of the true manures. 
It is always said that barn-vard manure, besides its nutritive virtues, 
possesses the advantage of softening hard lands, and rendering them per¬ 
meable by air and water. I do not deny the truth of this: I even ac¬ 
knowledge that it owes this property almost entirely to the straw which 
it contains; but the same effect would be produced by burying the straw 
upon the spot. 
