The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1905-01-12
LETTER ON FERTILIZERS
Description of Various Nitro.
genous Materials Used.
PACKING HOUSE PRODUCES, ETC.

< IL = ~
State Chemist John S. Mccandless
interestingly and instructiveIy Upon
This Important and Much Discussed
Question.
Letter No. 6.
AS you and others have written me
to know what is the value of the diff.
ferent materials used in the manufac.
ture of commercial fertilizers. | will
give you at this point a fairly com.
plete account OF the substances prin.
cipally used. First, we will consider
in the order of their value in dollars
and cents, and their agricultural i'm.
portance, the heterogeneous materials,
or those which yield nitrogen to the
plant Such substances are also known
as ammoniates, because under certain
conditions the nitrogen which they con.
tain can be converted into ammonia.
Now nitrogen and ammonia are not the
same thing by any means, but still
they are closely related, they are both
gases. Nitrogen, as / have described
to you before in another place, Is a
colorless, odorless, tasteless gas, and
constitutes four-fifths of the air or at.
mosphere which envelopes the earth.
Ammonia is also gas and is cololess,
but 1t has pungent odor, the same
which you have noticed in spirits of
hartshorn or spirits of ammonia bought
from the drug store. 1t also has a
caustic burning taste, and Is easily
dissolved in water, which nitrogen is
not.
Ammonia is made by causing nitro
gen to combine with hydrogen. Four
teen pounds of nitrogen combine with
three pounds of hydrogen to make sew
enteen pounds of ammonia, so that
ammonia always contains a large
amount of nitrogen, but nitrogen never
contains any ammonia. And right
here it is we'll for you to understand,
that we have all fallen into very I'M
wise and erroneous habit of speaking
about a fertilizer as containing such
per cent of ammonia. AS a matter
of fact, it is rarely If ever the case
that fertilizer contains any ammo
MIA, as such at all, but it does contain
nitrogen combined in various forms.
AS you know, 1t is customary, in
the careless way OF talking obtaining
among us all, to speak Of cottonseed-
meal as containing eight per cent. am
monia. That Is wrong; it does not
contain any ammonia, but it does con.
tain six and sixtenths per cent. of nj
trogen in the form of albuminoids or
protein, of which I wrote you so much
in my letters on feeding; and this six
and sixteenth per cent. of nitrogen can
under certain chemical conditions be
converted into per cent. of ammonia.
| hope, then, have made this plain,
and when you buy fertilizer in the
future don't imagine because you smell
certain peculiar odors about 1t that
you smell ammonia; that is rarely II
ever the case; the odors you smell are
usually due to animal matters, fish
scrap, ETC., and indicate no greater
value in the fertilizer 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 high
! est grade fertilizer which could possibly
be compounded by the art Of man
would be snow white in color. The
materials used for compromising such
q fertilizer would be nitrate of am
monia and phosphate of potash, and
these salts when chemically pure are
snow white salts. To return now to
our description of the various nitro
genous materials. Cottonseed-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. IL converted
into ammonia, would be equal to eight
per cent.
1t also contains an average OF 2.7
per cent. Of phosphoric acid and 1.8
per cent. potash. II Is a very valu
able fertilizer, and constitutes the nj
trogen base of the greater portion OF
commercial fertilizers manufactured in
the South
Next to cottonseed-meal the mate
rlals used most largely in the manu-
facture Of commercial fertilizers are
the
packing House Products"
AS little is generally known Of these
and the manner Of their production,
will give you 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 various
parts OF the body are put to some spe
cial use. Apart from 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
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