445 



stem, the residue, or chaff, was found to be composed as 



follows : 



Carbon 50.34 



Hydrogen 7.33 



Nitrogen 24- 



Oxygen 40.52 



Ashes 1.57 



100.00 

 This is almost identical in composition with the residual hemp 

 stem, and may therefore be applied to the same uses. Restored 

 to the soil with the steep water, it should give back all that 

 the crop of flax had taken from the grounds, and thus the 

 valuable fibre being generated by the atmosphere, the great 

 source of expense in the cultivation of the plant might be 

 removed. 



Dr. Kane finally placed before the Academy certain 

 tables, in which, taking the average quantity of produce from 

 a statute acre of fibre-crops and of food crops, and comparing, 

 from the data supplied by the analyses of Sprengel, Bous- 

 singault, and his own, the weights of materials of which the 

 soil is exhausted by each crop, it appeared that the fibre 

 crops were actually more exhausting than the food crops ; 

 whilst the agriculturist profits by the materials that the food 

 crops take out of the ground, and the substances taken up 

 by the fibre crops from the soil are at present actually re- 

 jected as waste and valueless. Hence it is, as Dr. Kane 

 considers, of much interest to the agricultural industry of 

 Ireland that the views of economizing the residues of the 

 preparation of flax and hemp, put forward in his memoir, be 

 tested by practical men, as, if they be found correct, and that 

 those residues may be applied with success to prepare and 

 fit the soil for another crop, those fibrous plants will be 

 practically deprived of their exhausting qualities, and the 

 greatest disadvantage, under which their extensive cultivation 

 in this country labours, may be removed. 



