Fitzgerald enterprise. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1895-1912, 1902-10-03
M'CANDLESS' LETTER
Description of heterogeneous
Fertilizer Materials.
SUBSTANCES USED IN THEM.


Agricultural Notwithstanding
House Products-Dred Blood Rich.
est In Nitrogen.
AS you and others have written me TO
know what is the value of the differ
ent materials used in the manufacture
OF commercial fertilizers, l will give
you at this point fairly complete &C
count of the substances principally
used. First We will consider in the
order of their value in dollars and
cents, andMtheir agricultural import
ance, the heterogeneous materials, OF
those whicMgield nitrogen to the plant.
Such substan Is are also known as am
moniates becaS under certain con-
ditlos the nitrogen which they contain
can be Converted into ammonia. Now
nitrogen and ammonia are not the
same thing by any 1eans, but still
they are closely relate they are both
gases. Nitrogen, as IVhave described
10 you before in another place, is
colorless, ordorless, tasteless gas, and
constitutes four-fifths of the air or at
mosphere which envelopes the earth.
Ammonia is also gas and is colorless,
put 1t has a pungent odor, the same
winch you have noticed in spirits of
hartshorn or spirits of ammonfa-
bought from the drug store. 1t also
has caustic burning taste, and is
easily dissolved in water, eh nitro
gen is not.
Ammonia is made by causing nitro
gen to combine with hydrogen. Four
teen pounds if nitrogen combine with
three pounds of hydrogen to make
seventeen pounds of ammonia, SO that
ammonia always contains large
amount OF nitrogen, but nitrogen never
contains any ammonia. And right
here it is well for YOU to understand,
that We. have all fallen into a very
unwise and erroneous habit of speak
ing about fertilizer as containing
such a per cent. of ammonia. AS a
matter Of fact it Is rarely, if ever, the
case that fertilizer contains any am
monia, as such at all, but it does con-
tain nitrogen combined in various
forms.
AS you know it is customary, in the
careless way Of talking obtaining
among us all, to speak of cotton-seed
meal as containing eight per cent. OF
ammonia. That is wrong, it does rot
contain any ammonia, but it does con.
tain six and siX-tenths per cent. of
nitrogen in the form of albuminoids or
protein, of which 1 wrote you so much
in my letters on feeding; and this six
and siX-tenths per cent of nitrogen
can under certain chemical conditions
be converted into eight per cent or am
monia. l hope then have made this
plain, and when you buy fertilizer in
the future don't imagine, because, you
smell certain peculiar odors about it,
that you smell ammonia; that is rarely
If ever, the case; the odors you smell
fish-scrap etc., and indicate no greater
value in the fertilizer than one which
has no odor at all.
In the same way dark or black
color is no indication of value in the
fertilizer. In point of fact the highest
grade fertilizer which could possibly
be compounded by the art of maa
would be snow white in color. The
materials used for compounding such
fertilizer would be nitrate of am
monia and phosphate of potash, and
these salts when chemically pure are
snow white salts. To return now tc
our description of the various nitro
genous materials. Cotton-seed meal
with 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.
1t also contains an average Of 81
per cent. of phosphoric acid and 1.s
per cent. of potash. It is a very valua-
BILE fertilizer, and constitutes the nitro.
gen base of the greater portion of com.
mercial fertilizers manufactured in the
South.
"PAcKING-HoUsE PRODUCTS"
AS little is generally known of these |
and the manner Of their production, |
will give you a brief account of their |
manufacture.
The great packing houses are locat-
ed chiefly in Chicago, Kansas City and
Omaha, where immense numbers Of
cattle are slaughtered, and the var.
ious parts Of the body are put to some |
special use. Apart form the production
Of dressed beef, mutton or pork there |
is of course large quantity of waste !
to be utilized. but the material most !
interesting to us is that which is used
for fertilizer, this consists of blood.
of bones, and mixture Of scraps of |
meat skin bones and blood