Vol. XV. No. 373. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



261 



either for the grain or for green forxi, or for making into 

 ensilage. If grazed, the pigs should be turned in about 

 the time the beans ai-e ripening. If used as a soiling 

 crop, it should be cut before the beans form The beans 

 themselves, ground into meal and mixed with maize, 

 form a well-balanced ration, especially for 'topping up' pigs. 

 They should be used sparingly with young pigs, as they are 

 liable to be too heating. One of the best possible crops 

 for pigs, and one which when fed in conjuction with maize 

 produces a really good bacon, is peas. Their use tends to 

 prevent the loss of stamina and reproductive power, which is 

 induced by an exclusive diet of maize; but peas should not 

 be fed alone, especially to young pigs, as they cause unthrifti- 

 ness; they should always be used in conjunction with some 

 starchy food such as maize or sweet potatoes. 



In closing this summary of the valuable article under 

 notice, reference may be made to its concluding section on 

 the housing of pigs It is stated that the elaborate hou.sing 

 of pigs in a warm country is not only unnecessary, but to some 

 extent, quite apart from the question of cost, undesirable. 

 Light, air, dryness, and shelter are the principal requirements. 

 For styes the only suitable permanent floor appears to be 

 cement. In a temporary sty, where the outside portion is 

 not cemented, it is always as well to raise the bed of the 

 covered part of the sty even as much as 2 feet above the 

 level of the exercise yard outside. To enable the animals 

 to get in and out easily, a sloping way should be made from 

 one level to the other. 



DEVELOPMENTS IN THE POTASH INDUS- 

 TRY OF THE UNITED STATES OF 

 AMERICA, IN 1915. 



H.M. Embassy at Washington has forwarded an extract 

 from Commerce Jieports (Washington) of April 24, sum- 

 marizing a Review of the developments in the potash 

 industry in the United States in 1 9 1 -5, which has been issued 

 by the United States Geological Survey. 



The Review states that potash salts were produced in 

 the United States in 191-5 to the value of 1342,000 (about 

 .£70,300). The imports of refined potash salts in 191-5 were 

 76,141 tons, or slightly more than 25 per cent, of those in 

 1913, the latest normal year of importation. Imports of 

 potash fertilizers, kainit, manure salts, and double manure 

 salts amounted to 20,427 tons, or only about 3 per cent, of 

 the importation in 1913. Taking all the pota.sh salts 

 together, imports in 1915 were about one-tenth of the 

 quantity normally imported. 



In 1 9 1 •") potash was recovered, as a by-product, from 

 the manufacture of Portland cement at Riverside (California). 

 By-product potash from this source has yielded a consider- 

 able revenue, owing to its abnormally high price, and in 

 obtaining it two other purposes have been subserved: the 

 saving of additional material to be converted into cement, 

 and the elimination of the dust nuisance. Manufacturers 

 of Portland cement having had their attention directed 

 to a possible revenue from by-product potash will not 

 be slow in thoroughly investigating their raw material. 

 Already a company near Hagerstown (Maryland), is reported 

 to be installing a plant for the recovery of potash salts. 



Potassium sulphate from alunite was first placed on the 

 market late in October 1915, by a company at Marysvale 

 (Utah). So far, the production has not been large owing to 

 the incidents connected with a pioneer enterprise of this 



character, but, though certain foreign deposits of alunite have 

 been worked for potash alum, this is the first recorded yield 

 of potash salts as such from alunite. The product is of high 

 grade. 



A plant was established by an Omaha company in the 

 spring of 1915 at Hoffland, near Alliance, in the north- 

 western part of the State of Nebraska, and during about half 

 of the year the company obtained potash salts from the brine 

 of an alkaline lake in that region. 



In addition to the output from these sources, potash 

 was also obtained from kelp along the Pacific coast. 



Experimental work on the production of potash salts- 

 from different sources was active during the year, and in 

 places this experiment has been succeeded by the setting up- 

 of plants. Operations are in progress at Searles Lake and 

 at Keeler, on the shores of Owens Lake, California. It is 

 reported that one company is erecting a plant near Great Salt 

 Lake, and that another plant will soon be started at the south 

 end of the lake. The by-product bittern has also received 

 some attention at solar-evaporation plants at San Francisco 

 Bay. 



Great activity has been manifested in experiments for 

 the recovery of potash from the silicate rocks, such as feld- 

 spar and leucite, from the mica sericite and from greensand. 

 In many laboratories researches have been in progress, some 

 of which, according to reports, offer prospects of profitable 

 commercial development, if feldspars and other rocks rich in 

 potash in sufficient quantity and purity can be found and 

 utilized. A small quantity of potash salts was probably 

 produced from these .silicate rocks and minerals during 1915, 

 and found its way into mixed fertilizers without intermediate 

 refinement. 



ESTIMATION OF GUM AND PECTIN 



IN FILTER-PRESS CAKE. 



The following is a translation of the conclusions- 

 arrived at in an article by Dr. T. Vander Linden in 

 Archief voor de Suiker Industrie in NedefLindsch- 

 Indie for April 1916, on the estimation of gum and 

 pectin in fiitei'-press cake: — 



On the basis of the foregoing, we can now give the 

 following generally applicable prescription for gum and 

 pectin determination in filter mud. 



Twenty grams of filter mud are digested for half an 

 hour with 200 to 400 c.c. — according to the requirements 

 of the nature of the material — of a mixture of 100 parts 

 of 95 per cent, alcohol, with 20 parts of hydrochloric acid, 

 specific gravity 1'09 (obtained by diluting acid of ri8 

 .specific gravity with a like volume of water). 



After digesting, it is filtered and washed with warm 

 alcohol until neutral. The precipitate is then placed in 

 a beaker and repeatedly extracted with warm water ttntil the 

 extract amounts to 300 to 400c.c. This extract is evapo- 

 rated on the water bath to 40c.c., and after cooling, the pectin 

 is precipitated with a mixture of 300c. c. alcohol (95 per cent.) 

 and 60c.c. hydrochloric acid of r09 specific gravity. After 

 several hours' settling the precipitate is filtered with an 

 ash-free filter, dried at 105°C., and weighed. The precipitate 

 with the filter is dried at 105°C. to constant weight and then 

 reduced to ash. The weight of the precipitate diminished 

 by that of the ash gives the weight of the pectin-like sub- 

 stance. 



