396 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



This, however, can be very easily remedied by the addition 

 of some phosphate, such as bone-meal. In the large amount 

 of potash and gypsum it contains, sea-weed serves admirably 

 as a dressing for grazing-lands. It is also very well suited 

 to potatoes and other roots, tobacco, flax, and growths re- 

 quiring a good deal of potash. As an element in compost, it 

 is quite unrivaled, owing to the readiness with which it is 

 decomposed, and the intimate combination which it enters 

 into with other substances. 8 C^July, 1872, 12. 



EFFECT OF FOOD ON THE URINE OF ANIMALS. 



Upon feeding one goat on green clover and beet leaves, 

 and another exclusively on milk, Weiske, of,Proskau, noticed 

 that the urine of the first was turbid and alkaline, and effer- 

 vesced with acids (as is normally the case in the herbivora), 

 while that of the last was perfectly clear of acid reaction, 

 and free from carbonic acid, or like the normal urine of the 

 carnivora; it was also of low concentration, and high com- 

 parative percentage of nitrogen, as shown by the following 

 analyses of 100 cubic centimeters: 



I. II. 



Solid matter 1 1 .08 Grams 1.75 Grams. 



Nitrogen 1.11 " ; 0.33 " 



Hippuric acid 0. 1 " (or 1 .8 on meadow-grass). 



Ash 5.19 " 0.57 " 



19 (7, November 9, 1872, 368. 



ARRESTING DECAY OF POTATOES. 



Professor Church, of Cirencester, the eminent agricultural 

 chemist, announces that sulphite of lime appears to exercise a 

 very remarkable influence in arresting the spread of decay in 

 potatoes affected by the potato disease. In one experiment the 

 salt was dusted over some tubers, partially decayed from this 

 cause, as they were being stowed away. Some months after- 

 ward, the potatoes were found to have suffered no further in- 

 jury. A similar trial with powdered lime proved to be much 

 less effective. 1 A, August 30, 1872, 105. 



UTILIZATION OF DISEASED POTATOES. 



The extensive failure of the potato crop in Great Britain, 

 in consequence of the prevalence of rust and rot, is a subject 

 of grave moment, as bearing upon the welfare of the labor- 



