PEESIDBNTIAL ADDRESS. 9 



produced. A sample of this made at Podgora, in Southern Austria, is now exhibited. A 

 paper maker iu Saxouy informed me that in point of strength, the cellulose made by the 

 sulphite process is to that made by the use of soda, as paper stock from linen is to that 

 produced from cotton. My principal object in referring to this wood-pulp business is to 

 direct attention to the waste of material for this manufacture which is going on in our 

 immediate neighbourhood. Vast quantities of sawdust and other wood refuse are every 

 year consigned to the care of the Ottawa River by the millowners at Chaudière Falls. The 

 poor Ottawa is doing its best to digest this material, but it is very inconvenient for the 

 fish, and even for other beings who depend on the river for a living. Necessity is the 

 mother of invention, and, in my opinion, if the authorities were absolutely to prohibit people 

 from throwing sawdust into the Ottawa, a means would soon be found, not only of dis- 

 posing of it otherwise, but of doing so profitably. The production from it of wood pulp, 

 in some form, seems to me to be the direction in which success is most likely to be 

 found. 



In considering waste in the vegetable kingdom, it is impossible to avoid some refer- 

 ence to that which is connected with agriculture. In this country, not only are the 

 sources of plant food very much neglected, but its application to crops is not so well 

 understood and practiced as it ought to be. With regard to stock-breeding and farm 

 implements, Canada can well stand a comparison with other countries ; but as regards the 

 conservation of natural manures, and the application of these and artificial fertilisers, we 

 must confess to being far behind the age. Our apatite deposits supply fertility to Europe ; 

 the ammonia product of our gas-works, when not wast^, goes to England ; the refuse bone 

 charcoal of our sugar refineries is mostly shipped to the United States ; and even our leached 

 wood ashes find a market there, just as the refuse bones of Grermany found a market in 

 England before the farmers of the Fatherland came to understand their value. Take even 

 barnyard manure, and observe how persistently it is neglected. It is thrown contemptu- 

 ously out of doors to be mixed up with snow, leached out by rain, or to have its nitrogen 

 scattered to the winds of heaven. How few realise that nearly the whole of the nitrogen 

 in the fodder fed to farm stock is to be found in the excrements of the animals, and that 

 one-half of it is contained in the urine ! It is further the fact that 95 per cent, of the 

 potash contained in the food of oxen and sheep may be recovered by carefully saving the 

 liquid manure only. Yet a rich, brown solution, full of ammonia, phosphates and potash, 

 the life-blood of the farm, is, in thousands of instances, allowed to ooze away from the 

 stable unheeded. To recommend the use of artificial fertilisers where this is going on, 

 would be like prescribing medicine for a starving man. Artificial fertilisers are, like 

 medicinal remedies, chiefly useful in assisting nature, and the natural food for crops is 

 contained in barnyard manure. To save this properly, the means are very simple. The 

 dung from the different animals must be brought together and kept under cover at a lower 

 level than the stable floor, so that the liquid manure may flow upon, over, and down 

 through it. In this way, all the sorts and both parts of the manure are properly blended, 

 the solid part and the bedding kept moist, and none of thi urine escapes. It is further 

 necessary to strew the stable floor, below and behind the animals, with 2 lbs. per 1,000 

 lbs. live weight, daily, of ground plaster or sulphate of lime, which has the eifect of 

 retaining the ammonia resulting from the decomposition of the liquid, and the fermenta- 

 tion of the solid manure. This latter practice was first thoroughly carried out by Von 



Sec. iii, 1887. 2. 



