JAMES MUSPRATT 9* 



to the soil, as manure, the inorganic con- 

 stituents which it was found by the analysis 

 of the ashes of the vegetation, had been taken 

 out of the soil by the plant, he got James 

 Muspratt to carry out his ideas by manu- 

 facturing certain manures. This manufacture 

 was carried on at Newton, about the years 

 1843-44. In this venture, Muspratt was 

 joined by Sir Joshua Walmsley, a gentleman 

 of much ability and enterprise, who had only 

 a few years before been Mayor of Liverpool ; 

 he was a member of Parliament, and a friend 

 of Richard Cobden and George Stevenson. 

 There is a letter of his in which he refers to 

 this manufacture of Liebig's manures: 

 "Having read Liebig's work on agricultural 

 chemistry, and being impressed with the 

 force of the reasoning; in conjunction with 

 Mr. James Muspratt, of Liverpool, a man 

 well versed in chemistry, I entered into an 

 arrangement with Professor Liebig to manu- 

 facture an article that would give back to land 

 all that cropping had taken out of it. The 

 ingredients were found too expensive for the 

 returns, and after a fair trial on which was 

 spent some thousands of pounds, the under- 

 taking was relinquished. Yet I always felt 

 pride in the thought that Mr. Muspratt and I 



