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LETTER ON FERTILIZERSDescription of Various Nitro genous Materials Used.PACKING HOUSE PRODUCES, ETC.8tate Chemist John S. McCandleee Interestingly and instructively Upon This Important and Much Discussed Question.Letter No. 6.As you and others have written me to know what It the value of the different materials used In the manufacture of commercial fertilizers, 1 will five you at this point a fairly complete account of the substances principally used. First, we will consider in the order of thedr value in dollars and cents, and their agricultural importance, the nitrogencous materials, or those which yield nitrogen to the plant. Such substances are also known as ammoniates. because under certain conditions the nitrogen which they contain can be converted into ammonia. Now nitrogen and ammonia are not the same thing by any means, but still they are closely related, they ure both gave*. Nitrogen, as 1 have described to you before in another place, la a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas. and constitutes four-fifths of the air or at moHphero which envelope the earth. Ammonia is also a gas and is cololess, but it has a pungent odor, the same which you have noticed In spirits of hartshorn or spirits of ammonia bought from the drug store. It also has a caustic burning taste, and is easily dissolved in water, which nitrogen is not.Ammonia is made by causing nitrogen to combine with hydrogen. Fourteen pounds of nitrogen oombine with three pounds of hydrogen to make seventeen pounds of ammonia, ho that ammonia always ccntalns a large amount of nitrogen, but nitrogen never contains any amntoniu. And right here' it is well for you to understand, that we have all fallen into a very unwise and erroneous habit of speaking about a fertilizer as containing such a per ceut «f ammonia. As a mutter of fact, it is rarely if ever the case that a fertilizer contains any ammonia, as such at all, but It (hies contain nitrogen combined in various forms.As you know. It is customary. In the careless way of talking obtaining among us all, to apeak of coftonsced-mtal as containing eight per cent ammonia. That is wrong: it docs not contain any ammonia, but it does contain six and sixtenths per cent, of nitrogen in the form of albuminoids or prolein. of which I wrote yon so muchano the manner of their production, i will give you a fa^rlef account of their manufacture.!The great packing-houses are located chiefly In Chicago, Kansas ('Ity and Omaha, where immense nutnbcrR of cattle are slaughtered, and the various parts of the body are put to some ape. clal use. Apart from the production of dressed beef, mutton or pork, there is, of course, a large quantity of waste to be utilized, but the material most interesting to us is that which is used for fertilizers: this consists of blood, of bones, and a mixture of scraps ol meat, skin, bones and blood.Dried Blood.The material known as dried blood is the most valuable fertilizing product. and the richest in nitrogen. In preparing this material, the liquid blood is collected in vats, where It is cooked: this process causes the separation of the protelu of the blood from much of the water; it is then put Into presses where ubout one-half of the water is pressed out. After pressing it is still damp, and in the form of cakes; these cakes are next broken up and dried by passing them through a mechanical drier heated by steam. The damp cakes go in at one end of the machine und dry cakes come out at the other, when they are ground to a powder and sacked ready for market. Tliis blood will usually contain about thirteen per cent, of nitrogen, which, is the equivalent of about sixteen per ceut. of ammonia, but as in the cast' of the cottonseed ireal, there la actually no ammonia In it.Tankaga.The next important product of the ■laughter-house is what Is known to the fertilizer trade at Tankage. This is a mixture of blood, bones, waste scraps of meal, etc. This material gets its name from the fact that it is cooked in huge tanks in tbe first stage of its preparation. It Is cooked uu-der steam presmire at a high temperature for several hours. As u result, most of tire fat in the mass la melted and rises to the top of the tanks, where It is skimmed off aud utilized for soap making and other purposes. The bones aud the cooked meat, etc., now lie at tbe bottom of the tank, aud the tank water is dark and highly colored — is in fact a son of soup, containing nitrogenous matter in solution. The solid matter, bone* etc., are removed, dried und crushed or ground In the i same way as wua done with the driedblood product.I Bone Meal.I There are also three kinds of bone rneal produced: raw bone meal, regular bone rneal, and stmined bone meal. Tire first is, us its name indicates. produced by the crushing and grinding of raw bones, after removing any adhering fat or meat. This material contains about four per ceut.o«aitaKlt;ismhlt;intfcsctcpinSistladbaatKrfv0cc1 I)III II»K*rIin my letters on feeding; and this sixand six tenth per cent, of nitrogen can j ~nitro(,en;twenty-three per* c ent, ofunder certain chemical conditions be converted into 8 per cent, of ammonia. I hope, then, I have made this plain, and when you buy a fertilizer in the future don’t Imagine because you smell certain peculiar odors about it thatyou smell ammonia; that is rarely ifever the case; the odors you smell are usually due to animal matters, fish-scrap, etc.. and indicate no greater value in rtie fertilize! than one which has no odor at all.In the* same way a dark or black color is no indication of value in the fertilizer. In point of fact, the highest grade fertilzer which could possibly be compounded by the art of man would he snow white in color. The materials used for compounding such a fertilizer would be nitrate of ammonia and phosphate of potash, and these salts when chemically pure are snow white salts. To return now to our description of the various nitrogenous materials. Cottonseed-meal, w 1th which you are fully familiar, stands first in importance in Southern agriculture.An average meal of good quality will contain six and six-tenths per cent, of nitrogen, which, If converted into ammonia, would be equal to eight per cent.It also contains an average of 2.7 per cent, of phosphoric acid and 1.3per cent, polaeh. It la a very vaJu able fertilizer, and constitute* the ui trogen base of tbe greater portion of eommereiaJ fertilisers manufactured in the South.Next to cottonseed-meal the mate rial* used most largely in the mauu facture of commercial fertilizers arc the' . ''Packing House Products.As little is; generally kuowu of Ll-Wetotal phosphoric acid, and eight aud one-half per cent, of available phosphoric acid. The regular bone meal ib cooked under pressure for a few hours in the tanks; lids removes fat and also causes some loss of nitrogen, make the product grind easier and finer. This grade ol hone meal contains ahout three per cent, nitrogen, twenty-seven and one-half per ceut. totaj phosphoric acid twelve aud one-1 ha if per cent, available phosphoric | acid. Steamed bone-meal is the prod-1 uct of the glue works, und is made by grinding the bone left after boiling all the fat and glue out of them that can be obtained. This process reduces the.- percentage of nitrogen, so that i at earned hone meal will hardly average more than two per cent, of nitrogen, but has about the same amount of j phospboitt acid as the ordinary bone-meal.Horn and Hoof Meal, Misconception*About.Horn and hoof meal is another prod-| uct of the slaughter house. Imperfect horns and dark-colored hoofs hi*I | rfirst thoroughly steamed, then dried and ground lijtp meal. The better , quality of horns and hoofs command , very high prices, even as $200 a ton,; for other purpose?*. In the manufacture lt;yf buttons and novelties; htnce the quanlty erf this material coming .on the market In limited. There was formerly a great prejudice against it. and it used to be considered fraudulent to use it in fertilizers. Even in standard works on agricultural chemistry of quite recent date the material is spoken of as being only very slowly available as. plan I-food. This, however, has in the past two or throe .•ears'been shown to lie an error, and cue material is now regarded by those
Newspaper Details
Newnan Weekly News
Newnan, Georgia, US
Wed, Jan 25, 1905
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Joey C.
GA, USA 01 Dec 2021
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