1904-5.] THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES OF THE DOMINION. 167 
producing some two tonsa day. The methods employed for obtaining the 
gas are from the action of an acid, such as sulphuric acid, on chalk, dolomite 
or sodium carbonate, and by the combustion of coke, while it is also got 
as a bye-product from the fermentation vats in breweries. The gas, after 
being washed and purified, is compressed, cooled, and in liquid form 
is forced into steel cylinders at a pressure of from sixty to eighty atmos- 
pheres. (The cylinders are tested to a pressure of over two hundred 
atmospheres). This liquid gas finds a market from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, and is used for aerating mineral and artificial waters, for forcing 
beer from barrels in the cellar to a higher level, and at the same time pre- 
serving it from deterioration. It is also used in the refining of sugar, as a 
motive power in spraying trees with a germicidal solution, and in the 
laboratory for producing low temperature mixtures. Numerous useful 
bye-products are a consequence of the process of production of carbonic 
acid, such as fine clay used by paper-makers, Epsom salts and Glauber’s 
salts—all of which are employed in many industries and command a ready 
sale. 
VII.—FERTILIZERS. 
Mineral phosphates, in the form of apatite, are found in the Ottawa 
Valley, Ontario, but the deposits have not been worked for several years. 
About 1891, in which year the phosphates mined were valued at $50,000, 
a falling off began in the output of this mineral, which continued up to 
1902, when the amount mined was hardly worth recording. This industry 
is on the increase again, however, and last year saw a production valued 
at some $8,000. This state of affairs has been brought about mainly by 
the large supply of easily-worked phosphates found in Florida and Carolina, 
U.S.A., much of which is obtained. by dredging. It may be mentioned, 
however, that a certain amount of apatite is made use of in the Province 
of Quebec by the Buckingham iset als Reduction Company, who manu- 
facture phosphorus therefrom.*” 
Sulphate of ammonia is manufactured at the works of the Dominion 
Iron and Steel Company, Sydney, N.S., whose products are supplied to 
dealers and others engaged in the fertilizer business. The ammoniacal 
liquors of the Quebec, Ottawa and Toronto Gasworks are worked up at 
the latter city by the Michigan Ammonia Company.®? In Montreal, one 
firm at least, makes sulphate of ammonia, and at one time the gas works 
there utilized their own liquors for its production. Latterly, however, 
the gas liquor was exported, to be dealt with by a firm in the United States. 
Quite a number of other fertilizers are produced in the Dominion from 
(32) Minerals of Quebee: published by the Provincial Government. 
(33) Letter from Mr. Macfarlane, Chief Analyst to the Inland Revenue Department. 
