Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-08-03
Street Sweeping
ASAFERTILIzER

/ A bulletin has been issued by the
bureau of soils, U. S. Department of
Agriculture, which might be of inter
est to the Honolulu, board of super
visors and to local agriculturist. 1t is
BIZ ]. ]. Skinner and J. H. Beattle.
scientists in soil fertility investiga-
tons. There are ten of these SCENT
lists employed, among them being Ed
mund c. Shorey, formerly Territorial
chemist and pure food commissioner
here. ID.
: In their Introductory remarks the
authors of the present treatise say: y
"This bureau has many requests for
information in regard to the value of
street dust and street sweepings as
.fertilizing material, both from truck
ers and gardeners and from. officials
of large cities interested in the best
means of disposing of city waste. i
"The debris which is collected from
the streets of cities in commonly used
aa feftilizing material, being sold to
nearby gardeners, truckers, and
farmers. its rather low cost making it
particularly attractive. The main OBJ
iect of the city official is to dispose y
the material, and in some cases it Is.
burned and in others it is hauled to
dumping ground ard used as filling
material.
There is some, variation in the
character of the material collected
from the streets of different cities, de-
pending on the nature of the indus
tries, the kind of paving material
used, and the character of traffic on
their streets, yet on the whole the col
lections from sweepirgs are very SINH
lar and consist chiefly of animal man
ure, leaves, dirt and trash, such as
paper, fruit skins, particles of coal,
etc. The sweepings may contain also
finer particles of the paving sub
stance and some oily material drop
ped from vehicles. This is especially
true at the present time, when the
use of power vehicles for pleasure
and business is so extensive. The eff
feet of the sweepings on crops, espe-
cially when used continually year
after year on the same field, is a sub
ject of much interest and has caused
considerable speculation.
This article DEATH with an in
vestigation of the street sweepihgs of
one of the larger cities. The mate
rial was studied from the point of
view of its organic and inorganic con-
stituents, and through cultural tests,
by means of which it's effect on plant
growth was observed"
Details of the Investigations, with
tables showing results, follow, from
which it appears that street sweepings
make valuable fertilizer, with the
exception that the oil they now gen.
orally contain should be eliminated,
as it is injurious. Following are the
concluding remarks:
An examination of the figures in
the table shows that the sweepings
and stable manure had about the same
efficiency in causing increased
growth. This is true with both the
grain and the vegetable crop.
The oil was also extracted from
the sweepings by using ether as the
solvent, and the sweepings after
wards tested in soils This test also
showed that the sweepings were pfac-
ticalfy as good as the stable manure
1T will be recalled that the effect of
the unextracted sweepings was not
nearly so good as the effect produced
by the stable manure. In other words.
after the oil was removed from the
street sweepings their action was
practically the same as that of the sta
BILE manure. That the oil is the dele
ferrous constituent of the sweepings
is also borne out by the fact that the
OIL itself when added to culture solu
tions in which plants were growing
markedly reduced their growth.
The application of street sweepings
to soils will undoubtedly have tene-
fetal effect and be factor in build
ing up the land. The possible danger
Of harmful effect from the oily sub
stance which it contains must, how
ever, be considered. If the oil could
be economically extracted this danger
would be averted. The oil could in
the debris for the first year or two
-