Dr. Kane on the Chemical Constitution of Flax and Hemp. 99 



acid, evolved by the vital action of the plants, tends, as it is 

 well known, to ameliorate the air we breathe. When, there- 

 fore, we take the sugar, or the woody fibre of a plant, we 

 have a material formed, as to its elements, independent of 

 the soil. For its formation is required a plant in healthy 

 vegetation, and for the plant to be in healthy vegetation, it 

 may require to abstract from the soil various materials, so that 

 the crop may actually be of a highly exhausting nature. Still 

 those materials do not go to the sugar or to the fibre ; they 

 exist in other portions of the plant; and if the sugar or fibre 

 be the valuable portion of the crop, as in reality usually occurs, 

 the elements which render its production costly are rejected, 

 and let to waste; they do not subserve any future useful pur- 

 pose, although nothing would be easier than to apply them 

 thereto. 



Such is actually, according to Dr. Kane's idea, the condi- 

 tion of the growth of one plant of the highest importance to 

 agricultural industry in Ireland — that of flax, and also of an- 

 other, which although not now grown here, has been grown 

 with success, and, as he conceives, might still be cultivated 

 with considerable advantage, the hemp. In flax and hemp 

 the valuable portion of the plant is ligneous fibre; the purer 

 this fibre is, the more its value increases; yet the pure fibre 

 contains no element derived from the soil. It is well known 

 to be produced solely by the atmospherical constituents. 

 Hence, the intense exhausting nature of the flax and hemp 

 crops, which makes them dreaded by agriculturists, notwith- 

 standing the high money value of the crops, arises, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Kane, from causes of which the effects may be ob- 

 viated by attention to the true conditions of the growth and 

 composition of the plants, so that those fibre-crops, such as 

 flax and hemp, from being the most exhausting and expen- 

 sive, may be rendered the least injurious to the land, and per- 

 haps amongst the cheapest that can be grown. 



As the chemical composition of these plants had never been 

 examined, Dr. Kane devoted himself to the determination, as 

 well of their organic as of their inorganic constituents, and 

 from an extensive series of analyses, of which the details are 

 given in the memoir, arrived at the following results : — 

 Composition of the stem of hemp, dried at 2] 2° F. 



Carbon 39*94. 



Hydrogen 5*06 



Oxygen 48*72 



Nitrogen 1'74 



Ashes 4'54> 



100*00 

 H2 



