which contain Ammonia. 4 $9 



in ascertaining what would be the most (Economical process 

 for its production : I had resort to the various different arti- 

 cles of a refuse nature, such as were easily to he procured 

 at the cheapest rate, for the purpose of obtaining ammonia; 

 but I found, however much I varied the article, that, accord- 

 ing to the quantity of ammonia I could produce from that 

 article, the farmers had always been beforehand wiih me in 

 raising the price of it ; as they found it useful in the same 

 proportion in its application on land : and that is as far as I 

 am acquainted with the matter. Of course the production 

 of ammonia, on a great scale, would be of great importance 

 to the agricultural interest. 



Are you acquainted with the subject of the use of am- 

 moniacal liquor, in agriculture? — I am. 



[The witness here read a paper to the committee,] 

 , Gentlemen, 



Your inquiry as to my opinion of the uses to which your 

 ammoniacal liquor is or may be applicable, I shall endea- 

 vour to satisfy as far as the shortness of time will permit. 

 Positive evidence of the immediate result of experiments, 

 which require time and seasons, cannot be obtained in re- 

 gard to such uses as, from the closest analogy and the most 

 reasonable inference, we should be induced to apply this 

 production of your process to. There are many uses in the 

 arts and manufactures to which the application of the am- 

 monia or volatile alkali is well known, and which are al- 

 ready in- part enumerated. But when the demand for these 

 purposes is supplied, and, on the probable great extent 

 of the production of your ammonia, should a surplus 

 quantity remain, I have reason to think, that in some very 

 considerable departments of agriculture that surplus, how- 

 ever great, will find a ready and adequate market. A judi- 

 cious application of ammonia to land before it be sown with 

 turnips, (but if afterwards, on no account after the plants 

 are up,) is likely to produce the most beneficial results. 

 What justifies me in this conclusion, is the simple conside- 

 ration, that all the powerful and concentrated manures of 

 high price, and in great request, are just so in the degree in 

 which I have found them by analysis to contain either am- 



E e 4 monia 



