Black Bones and Vitriol, or how a small farm in Newark helped launch an agricultural revolution.

PART ONE: Superphosphates to the Rescue!

Kevin Olsen, Montclair State University, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

In the present day we are accustomed to buying inexpensive food that was grown in some distant place. A few nights ago my son complemented his mother on the sweet corn she served with dinner, tastes good, like it was just out of the can.

It seems almost an almost radical idea to buy produce that is locally grown or Jersey fresh. Shopping at a farmers market is still a minority pursuit. Many persons blame chemistry for the dearth of locally grown produce. Paradoxically, chemists made it possible to grow food locally long before they made it possible to ship food great distances.

Consider the problem of the growing cities of the late 1700s and early 1800s. When cities were small, the surrounding countryside was able to supply sufficient food for the urban population, provided of course that the costs of transportation remained low. As the city expanded the only way to feed the increased population was to grow more food on ever more distant farms. Compounding this problem was the fact that the farming areas closest to the city were exploited the longest. They were in many cases already suffering from depleted soils. A sort of Malthusian equilibrium existed between the city and its food supply. Urban growth could not exceed the capacity of the farms that were within easy transportation distance.

Some crops such as cereals and grains could be transported great distances. Sometimes this was not enough. By 1850 Boston had outgrown the wheat production capacity of the entire state of Massachusetts. Other foodstuffs such as cod and pork could be salted or dried to preserve them during transit. Everything else, fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products still had to be produced locally.

Being on an island, New York was one of the first cities to confront this problem. By the 1830s it was clear that unless the city did something it would soon outgrow its food supply.

One solution was literally underfoot, New York would recycle its garbage into more food. The prices paid for scrap metals, paper, cloth, and glass made recovery of these materials economical. Most trash therefore consisted of animal carcasses, offal, ashes, bones, and spoiled food.

While it might seem that such materials would easily compost into a rich fertilizer, it soon became obvious that cities were not only outgrowing their food supply, they could not hope to compost their way out of the problem. Any reader of the Indicator who survived P-chem will realize that the energy of the foods imported into the city will exceed the energy of the garbage coming out. Similarly, only a fraction of the nutrients extracted from the soil and brought into the city could ever be returned to the farmlands.

We have seen in the November 2005 Indicator how marls could be used to restore soil fertility but this was a long-term solution. English farmers said that a man Òmanures for himself, limes, for his son, and marls for his grandson. What was needed was a ready source of nitrogen, phosphates, and potassium.

Beginning in the 1840s guano began to be imported from South America. The accumulated seabird droppings on the rocky islands off the coasts of Peru and Chile were several hundred feet thick when the guano trade began. Guano is rich in nitrates and phosphates and one ton of it has the same fertilizer value as 33 tons of manure. The first American imports were only a few tons for experimental purposes in the early 1820s. Once its value was demonstrated in England, American farmers began fertilizing with it. Imports jumped from 1,013 tons in 1848 to 175,849 tons in 1854. Production fell off sharply as the resource began to be depleted. By the 1860s imports were down to 60,000 tons annually.

But guano was only one of many available options. It had been a tradition since ancient times to allow a filed to Òlie fallow every third year. During that time, particles of rock in the soil would be weathered. Feldspars would release potassium and to a lesser extent, the same process occurred with rocks containing phosphates. Bacterial action would convert insoluble nutrients to available forms.

Farmers would also be able to increase soil fertility by applying manure (containing nitrogen chiefly as urea and ammonium salts), wood ashes (potassium carbonate), dried blood (rich in both nitrogen and phosphorous), ground bones (a good source of calcium and phosphates), or plowing grasses that are rich in nitrogen back into the soil. (This is why modern homeowners are frequently advised to mulch, and not bag, grass clippings.)

Human excrement, sometimes referred to as night soil, was removed from the cities, dried, and mixed with peat, gypsum, or charcoal. It was sold under the name Poudrette. This material was not a particularly effective fertilizer as the additives diluted the nutrients.

Other sources of nitrogen included dried fish scraps. The use of fish for fertilizing crops in North America goes back to the early 1600s when the Indians taught the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, to place a fish in the ground when planting corn. The only problem is that accumulations of undecomposed fish oil in the soil can damage crops. Allowing fish to decay partially in water and skimming off the oil solved this problem.

Waiting for fish to decompose, even partially, was time-consuming and smelly. During the first half of the 1800s fertilizer manufacturers developed a faster process in which the fish oils were extracted under heat and pressure. The remaining flesh was ground and sold as an alternative to guano. This recovered two saleable products from the same fish. Oily fish such as Menhaden were especially prized by this industry. The fish oil industry thrived on Long Island, in New Jersey, and on the coasts of Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The Haber process for nitrogen fixation was introduced during the First World War. Smaller amounts of fertilizer would continue to be produced from fish-meal but the industry would thrive for another five or six decades as a source of animal feed and oil.

Beginning in the 1830s and 1840s a similar process was applied to animal carcasses and offal. The carcasses would be packed into digesters where heat and pressure were used to cook out the fats. These were drawn off and used in the production of glycerin, candles, and soap. After cooking, the carcasses were pressed to remove any additional fat and then could be composted into fertilizer. Sometimes the composting process was accelerated by the use of sulfuric acid digestion. It appears that the companies in this business sometimes sold their product under the name guano in an attempt to link it to the Ònatural product.

This process solved several problems at once. It provided fertilizers for farms, raw materials for industry, and a market for carcasses. In July of 1853 alone, 1,113 tons of butchers offal, 119 tons of dead horses (425 individual carcasses), and 210 tons of Òother nuisances were removed from Manhattan Island for reprocessing into grease and fertilizer. The monthly total of animal carcasses included 81 cows, 12 sheep, ten pigs, one goat, and one alligator. (Yes, alligator)

Grease recovery plants also accepted food wastes and kitchen refuse. In the closing years of the 1800s the majority of New York Citys food wastes were processed in a plant operated by the New York Sanitary Utilization Company. It was located on Barren Island in Jamaica Bay.

The practice of rendering animal carcasses and food wastes for grease and fertilizer would continue into the twentieth century. Objections to the odors and rising real estate values would send it far from the cities. The last grease recovery plant would be banished from New York City in 1936.

Manure, fish scrap, and guano were all established as excellent sources of nitrogen during the first half of the 1800s. Potassium could be obtained from wood ashes. But where was a farmer going to get phosphorous?

Bone meal provided an excellent source of phosphates but it decomposed too slowly for the increasingly mechanized, market-driven farming that was becoming widespread in the United States. In 1842 the English agricultural chemists John Bennett Lawes discovered that treating bones with sulfuric acid created a Òsuperphosphate.

Because superphosphate or P2O5 is readily soluble in water it is immediately available to plants. Superphosphates prepared from calcium-rich bones are sometimes referred to as Òsuperphosphates of lime. American chemists wasted little time in exploiting this discovery. The first fertilizer manufacturers in the United States were established in Baltimore and Philadelphia in the 1840s and 1850s.

END OF PART ONE

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Black Bones and Vitriol, or how a small farm in Newark help launch an agricultural revolution.

PART TWO: A Remarkable Chemist Investigates What Agitates the Public Mind

In part one of this article we have seen how limitations on the food supply threatened the rise of cities in the first decades of the 1800s. New sources of nitrogen and phosphorous containing fertilizers allowed urban centers to continue their rapid growth. In part two, we will see how a remarkable chemist helped promote both the use of these fertilizers and the application of scientific principles to agriculture.

It was shortly after the discovery of superphosphates (P2O5) that a chemist named James Jay Mapes (1806 - 1866) enters the story. Mapes and his competitor C.B. De Burg were the first two fertilizer manufacturers in the New York area. In 1854, C.B. De Burg established a factory for the production of superphosphates in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn where there was a supply of bone black from the local sugar refineries. (Ground and carbonized bones were used as a filter medium.)

Mapes also had a background in sugar refining. He was born in New York City in 1806. He began his career as a clerk and by age 21 was a merchant in the sugar refining business. He failed at that pursuit but in his spare time had studied both chemistry and the fine arts. Mapes was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy at the National Academy of Design.

After suffering unspecified financial setbacks, in 1847 Mapes bought a run down farm in the Weequahic section of Newark. It had the sort of depleted soil that Mapes hoped chemistry could restore. He began with preparations of superphosphates of lime made from both blackened and Ògreen bones. Mapes kept a supply of this material on hand for sale to anyone who wanted to try it.

The Weequahic section of Newark was a good choice for the demonstration project. A stream known as Bound Creek flowed through the area and emptied into the Passaic River. A small shipping terminal developed on the stream where farmers from Morris County could load their crops onto boats for the trip to New York City.

Mapes grew corn, wheat, vegetables, and fruit. He conducted experiments into tillage methods and fertilizer use. An 1852 editorial in the New York Times claimed that as a Òconsulting agriculturalist Mapes had visited more than 200 farms in New Jersey. He performed soil analysis and advised on the best fertilizers. It was claimed that the increased crop yields added $200,000 annually to the states agricultural income. It should be noted that the editorial contained no by-line and it is likely that Mapes himself wrote it.

By In 1853 Mapes was selling what he advertised as ÒImproved Super-Phosphate of Lime. At the time guano was in short supply in New York and it was only available in small quantities. Mapes was charging $50 per ton and it was asserted Òby some that his product was Òequal if not superior to guano. Whether Mapes himself was making such claims or merely allowing others to do so is not recorded. A Professor Johnson of Yale obtained 100 pounds of the material and performed an analysis. The results were:

Sulphate of Lime (Plaster) 37 lbs

Insoluble phosphate 21 lbs

Soluble superphosphate of lime 15 lbs

Free sulfuric acid 5 lbs

Ammonia 2.5 lbs

Non-nitrogenous organic matter, water, and sand 20 lbs.

Scientific American confidently reported that Professor Johnson has demolished any claims of superiority to guano. In terms of nitrogen this was certainly true but Mapes product compares favorably to modern fertilizers which typically contain somewhere between 18 and 20% P2O5.

Contemporary press reports reveal that Mapes was active in the American Institute Farmers Club. The many speeches he made on scientific farming included addresses to the Queens County Agricultural Fair in October of 1853 and the Mechanics Institute in 1854. He even endorsed an ointment sold for treating cuts and scrapes on horses legs. Mapes founded a magazine named the Working Farmer in which he agitated for scientific management of agriculture. The magazine promoted deep plowing, proper drainage, and heavy manuring.

The experiments conducted on the Weequahic farm lead Mapes to conclude that there was no single fertilizer that was suited to all types of crops. He began combining fertilizer types and in 1859 was issued two of the first patents (26,196 and 26,507) for mixed-formula fertilizers. The patents called for a mix of superphosphates of lime, guano, and ammonia.

But Mapes did not always have an easy time promoting his ideas. His 1866 obituary in the New York Times reports that his ideas were often disputed by Òpractical men and that not everyone who tried his fertilizers obtained the same good results.

Mapes had a number of other academic interests, we see him in November of 1852 lecturing a New York Audience on the principles behind an Òaxial electric engine invented by a Professor Page. Page went on to construct the first full-size electric locomotive using this motor. It was tried out on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1854.

Mapes also served on a committee that was asked to evaluate John Ericssons Òcaloric ship, an experimental vessel launched in New York in January of 1853. The ship used hot air instead of steam acting on her pistons to drive paddlewheels. Although the ship made ten knots on her first trials, initial reports (including that of Mapes) of the engines performance were overly optimistic and the idea was dropped.

Mapes himself once stated that he investigated most phenomena that Òagitated the public mind. These interests even extended to Spiritualism. While a believer in life after death, he denied embracing the entire set of spiritualist beliefs, at least until he had Òconcluded his investigations.

Mapes was also a dedicated amateur painter who reportedly had a talent for miniatures. Some of his paintings were exhibited at the National Academy. He became an expert on pigments and lectured on the chemistry of color. In 1850 he was one of the leaders behind the establishment of the Jersey Art Union in Newark. At the opening of the Unions first exhibition he gave a lecture on the relationship between the practical and the fine arts.

James Jay Mapes served as a trustee of the Mechanics Institute, helped found the American Museum of Natural History, and was among the first to propose that the there be a secretary of Agriculture in the Cabinet. His lucrative career as consultant, analytical chemist, and expert witness enabled him to maintain memberships in the best clubs of New York, a summer home in Newark, and a winter home on Bleecker Street in New York.

After his death in 1866, the fertilizer business was taken over by his son, Charles Victor. Charles continued the fertilizer experiments and in 1874 introduced a fertilizer specifically for potatoes. This was the first time that a fertilizer was formulated for one crop. This was followed by products for tobacco, cotton, corn, citrus, grapes, and fruit trees. Charles Victor was succeeded in the business by his son, Charles H. Mapes in 1916. Charles H. ran the business until it closed in 1926.

The Mapes Superphosphate Company had its plant on Shelter Island located in Suffolk County, Long Island. At the time it was an isolated island. Fertilizer manufacturers preferred to locate islands like these since they were close to the fishing fleet and water transportation was available. There were also few neighbors to object to the smell. Mapes Superphosphate shared the island with three Òoil and guano works and two fish oil works.

The introduction of the Haber process forever changed the fertilizer business, as did the widespread adoption of Òrock phosphates for agricultural purposes in the late 1800s. Phosphate rock, calcium phosphate, is formed as sedimentary marine deposits. It is mined in Florida, North Carolina, Utah, and Idaho. Florida and North Carolina account for about 85% of production in the United States. Rock phosphates are today the worlds leading source of phosphates.

The introduction of refrigerated railroad cars and later trucks meant that meat, dairy, and poultry could be farmed far from the cities. Frozen foods were introduced in the 1930s and once they were widely accepted by consumers in the 1950s, the separation between farmer and consumer grew even wider. Suburban sprawl covered what few farms remained near the cities and today the only surviving operations are those specifically set aside as preserved open space. New Jersey has preserved 1051 farms totaling 119,909 acres through its preservation program.

Preserving the land however will not be enough. Maintaining the fertility of farms close to the urban centers relies on chemistry today, the same as it did when Professor James Jay Mapes first bought a small farm near Newark.

For more information about the garbage rendering process, readers should consult, Fat of the Land: The Garbage Of New York - The Last Two Hundred Years, by Benjamin Miller. Published by Four Walls Eight Windows, 2000.

More information about the history of phosphate fertilizers and James Jay Mapes can be found in William Haynes, The American Chemical Industry Volume 1, Van Nostrand, 1945-54.