ulphate of ammonia, soda-saltpeter, fish and
flesh manures, bones and urine, cost the farmer more money per ton than
any other manures he buys or makes, superphosphate of lime excepted, and
this does not find sale, for general purposes, unless it contains
several _per cent._ of nitrogen. These are, in the highest sense,
nitrogenous fertilizers, and, if deprived of their nitrogen, they would
lose the greater share of their fertilizing power.

The importance of the nitrogen of manures depends upon the fact that
those forms (compounds) of nitrogen which are capable of supplying it to
vegetation are comparatively scarce.

It has long been known that peat contains a considerable quantity of
nitrogen. The average amount in thirty specimens, analyzed under the
author's direction, including peats and swamp mucks of all grades of
quality, is equivalent to 1-1/2 _per cent._ of the air-dried substance,
or more than thrice as much as exists in ordinary stable or yard manure.
In several peats the amount is as high as 2.4 _per cent._, and in one
case 2.9 _per cent._ were found.

Of these thirty samples, one-half were largely mixed with soil, and
contained from 15 to 60 _per cent._ of mineral matters.

Reducing them to an average of 15 _per cent._ of water and 5 _per cent._
of ash, they contain 2.1 _per cent._ of nitrogen, while the organic
part, considered free from water and mineral substances, contains on the
average 2.6 _per cent._ See table, page 90.

The five peats, analyzed by Websky and Chevandier, as cited on page 24,
considered free from water and ash, contain an average of 1.8 _per
cent._ of nitrogen.

We should not neglect to notice that peat is often comparatively poor in
nitrogen. Of the specimens, examined in the Yale Analytical Laboratory,
several contained but half a _per cent._ or less. So in the analyses of
Websky, one sample contained but 0.77 _per cent._ of the element in
question.

As concerns the state of combination in which nitrogen exists in peat,
there is a difference of opinion. Mulder regards it as chiefly occurring
in the form of _ammonia_ (a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen), united
to the organic acids from which it is very difficult to separate it.
Recent investigations indicate that in general, peat contains but a
small proportion of ready-formed ammonia.

The great part of the nitrogen of peat exists in an insoluble and inert
form: but, by the action of the atmosphere upon it, especially wh