onia.

In 1858 I took a weighed quantity of air-dry peat from the New Haven
Beaver Pond, (a specimen furnished me by Chauncey Goodyear, Esq.,) and
poured upon it a known quantity of dilute solution of ammonia, and
agitated the two together occasionally during 48 hours. I then distilled
off at a boiling heat the unabsorbed ammonia and determined its
quantity. This amount subtracted from that of the ammonia originally
employed, gave the quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained by the peat
at the temperature of boiling water.

The peat retained ammonia to the amount of 0.95 of _one per cent._

I made another trial at the same time with carbonate of ammonia, adding
excess of solution of this salt to a quantity of peat, and exposing it
to the heat of boiling water, until no smell of ammonia was perceptible.
The entire nitrogen in the peat was then determined, and it was found
that the dry peat which originally contained nitrogen equivalent to 2.4
_per cent._ of ammonia, now yielded an amount corresponding to 3.7 _per
cent._ The quantity of ammonia absorbed and retained at a temperature
of 212 deg., was thus 1.3 _per cent._

This last experiment most nearly represents the true power of
absorption; because, in fermenting manures, ammonia mostly occurs in the
form of carbonate, and this is more largely retained than free ammonia,
on account of its power of decomposing the humate of lime, forming with
it carbonate of lime and humate of ammonia.

The absorbent power of peat is well shown by the analyses of three
specimens, sent me in 1858, by Edwin Hoyt, Esq., of New Canaan, Conn.
The first of these was the swamp muck he employed. It contained in the
air-dry state nitrogen equivalent to 0.58 _per cent._ of ammonia. The
second sample was the same muck that had lain under the flooring of the
horse stables, and had been, in this way, partially saturated with
urine. It contained nitrogen equivalent to 1.15 _per cent._ of ammonia.
The third sample was, finally, the same muck composted with white-fish.
It contained nitrogen corresponding to 1.31 _per cent._ of ammonia.[3]

The quantities of ammonia thus absorbed, both in the laboratory and
field experiments are small--from 0.7 to 1.3 _per cent._ The absorption
is without doubt chiefly due to the organic matter of the peats, and in
all the specimens on which these trials were made, the proportion of
inorganic matter is large. The results therefore become a better
expression of th