U REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE 



vation of the surface soil might be omitted altogether; its 

 well established value must be referred to other causes. 

 A memoir on the subject is now in the press. 



V. Manures. 



Village ashes. Owing to the war the supply of potash 

 salts from Stassfurt has ceased and since these mines have 

 formed the chief source of the world's potash supply lor a 

 number of decades, the price of all potash salts has risen 

 seriously. 



India is not a large consumer of potash salts, but there 

 is a small steady demand for such among the tea and coffee 

 planters of Southern India, and it was thought to be worth 

 while to examine samples of village ashes obtained from 

 the several provinces in order to ascertain whether potash 

 could be economically extracted from them. Seventeen 

 samples were examined and the percentage of potash 

 varied from about 1 to 10 per cent. From one quarter to 

 two-thirds of this is frequently soluble in water. The re- 

 mainder could be extracted by the agency of strong acid, 

 but this could not possibly pay. The water soluble potash 

 could be readily and very cheaply extracted in a manner 

 similar to that employed for the extraction of saltpetre 

 from earths. The evaporation of the water, in order to 

 obtain the crude potash salt, would require relatively a 

 good deal more fuel than is required for the evaporation of 

 the crude saltpetre liquors, and since the crude potash salts 

 obtained per 100 Ho. of water evaporated would not be 

 worth nearly as much as the corresponding quantity of 

 crude saltpetre, and since also the latter operation hardly 

 pays the nuniah to continue his industry, I concluded that 

 it is very doubtful if the manufacture of crude potash salt 

 from village ashes could succeed. 



It seems probable that tea and coffee planters who 

 require potash salts could most readily supply the present 

 deficiency by either burning waste timber on their own 

 estates or by doing so in the nearest forest, and putting 

 the wood ashes direct on the land, or possibly after first 



