300 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The unusual importance of this new industry created quite 

 naturally a lively spirit of speculation on the part of capital- 

 ists, which manifested itself at first by the formation of large 

 stock companies for the erection of factories to convert the 

 crude material into salable potash compounds. 



The number of factories increased from 1861, when the 

 first one was built by Dr. Frank, to thirty-three in 1872. 



The consumption of the crude salines, which, in 1862, 

 amounted to 20,400 tons, rose within an interval of ten years 

 to not less than 514,200 tons. 



Of late, some successful attempts have been made by private 

 parties to open new raining shafts independent of government 

 control. 



The most successful enterprise in this direction promises to 

 engage our attention within the coming season, on account of 

 the reported establishment of a direct agency in New York 

 City on the part of the owners of the mines and their comple- 

 ment of factories. 



The products of these new works will be introduced to us 

 as the Douglashall mining products, muriate and sulphate of 

 potash, etc., of Western-Egeln, Germany. 



Western-Egeln is a small Prussian village about nine or ten 

 miles to the north-west from Stassfurt. 



The chief manager of the enterprise, Mr. Douglas, is a 

 former reputed Stassfurt potash manufacturer ; the natural 

 resources at his command are stated as superior compared 

 with those at Stassfurt and Leopoldshall. 



F. Bishof, one of the foremost investigators and scientific 

 exponents of the extent and the nature of the peculiar local 

 geological formation, known as the Stassfurt salt deposit, 

 states, in a recent semi-ofiicial report, that the crude salines 

 at Egeln average 18 per cent, of muriate of potash (the 

 average at Stassfurt is stated to be about 17 per cent.) ; and 

 that in regard to quantity, the Douglas mines fully equal the 

 old ones. • . 



During a late visit, at my ofiSce, of one of the gentlemen 

 connected with the agency of the Douglashall mines estab- 

 lished at New York, I learned that the following brands will 

 be introduced at an early date into our fertilizer market : — 



