Skin.Human hair.Wool.Horn.
Carbon50·9950·6550·6551·99
Hydrogen7·076·367·036·72
Nitrogen18·7217·1417·7117·28
Oxygen23·2220·85 }24·6124·01
Sulphur...5·00}
————————————
100·00100·00100·00100·00

It rarely if ever happens, however, that the refuse offered for sale as a manure is pure. It always contains water, sand, and other foreign matters. Woollen rags are mixed with cotton which has no manurial value, and the skin refuse from tan-works contains much lime. Due allowance must therefore be made for such impurities which are sometimes present in very large quantity.

Refuse horse hair generally contains 11 or 12 per cent of nitrogen. Woollen rags of good quality contain 12·7 per cent of nitrogen; woollen cuttings about 14; and what is called shoddy only 5·5 per cent. Horn shavings are extremely variable in their amount of nitrogen; when pure, they sometimes contain as much as 12·5 per cent, but a great deal of the horn shavings from comb manufactories, etc., contain much sand and bone dust, by which their percentage of nitrogen is greatly diminished, and it sometimes does not exceed 5 or 6 per cent.

All these substances are highly valuable as manures, but it must be borne in mind that they undergo decomposition very slowly in the soil, and hence are chiefly applicable to slow growing crops, and to those which require a strong soil. Woollen rags have been largely employed as a manure for hops, and are believed to surpass every other substance for that crop. As a manure applicable to the ordinary purposes of the farm they have scarcely met with that attention which they deserve, probably because their first action is slow and the farmer is more accustomed to look to immediate than to future results; but they possess the important qualification of adding permanently to the fertility of the soil.

Blood is a most valuable manure, but it is not much employed in this country, at least in the neighbourhood of large towns, as there is a demand for it for other purposes, and it can rarely be obtained by the farmer in large quantity, and at a sufficiently low price. In its natural state it contains about 3 per cent of nitrogen, and after being dried up, the residue contains about 15 per cent. It is best used in the form of a compost with peat or mould, and this forms an excellent manure for turnips, and is also advantageously applied as a top-dressing to wheat.

Flesh.—The flesh of all animals is useful as a manure, and is especially distinguished by the rapidity with which it undergoes decomposition, and yields up its valuable matters to the plant. It is rarely employed in its natural state, but horse flesh was at one time converted into a dry and portable manure, although, I understand, this manufacture is not now prosecuted. The dead animal after being skinned is cut up and boiled in large cauldrons until the flesh is separated from the bones. The latter are removed, and the flesh dried upon a flat stove. The flesh as sold has the following composition:—

Water12·17
Organic matter78·44
Phosphate of lime, etc.3·82
Alkaline salts3·64
Sand1·93
———
100·00
Nitrogen9·22
Ammonia to which the nitrogen is equivalent11·20

The dried flesh and small bones of cattle, from the great slaughtering establishments of South America, was at one time imported into this country under the name of flesh manure. Its composition was—

Water9·05
Fat11·13
Animal matter39·52
Phosphate of lime28·74
Carbonate of lime3·81
Alkaline salts0·57
Sand7·18
———
100·00
Nitrogen5·56
Ammonia to which the nitrogen is equivalent6·67

But owing to the large proportion of phosphates contained in it, it may be most fairly compared with bones. It is not now imported, the results obtained from its use being said not to have proved satisfactory, although this statement appears very paradoxical.