178 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



From the Soulhcra Agiiculturist for June, 1846. 



ANALYSIS OF THE ASHES OF THE SUGAR CANE. 



New-Haven, April 28, 1846. 



Mr. Editor — My Dear Sir : Knowing that some of your readers would take 

 an interest in the following results upon the ashes of the sugar cane, obtained 

 by Mr. Stenhouse, I have been at the pains to condense them from a very valua 

 hie memoir published by this gentleman in a supplementary number of the Lon- 

 don, Edinburgh and Dublin Phil. Magazine and Journal of Science (No. 183, 

 Dec. 1845, p. 533), and herewith offer them to you, with a remark or two of my 

 own, provided they meet your views. 



Substances. 



Silica 



Phosphoric acid 



Sulphuric acid 



Lime 



Magnesia 



Potassa 



Soda. 



Chloride potas.sium . 

 Chloride sodium . . . 



5. I 



46-481 

 8-16 

 7-52 

 5-781 

 15-6l| 

 11-931 

 0-57| 



6. 



50-00 

 6-56 

 6-40 

 5-09] 

 13-01 

 13-691 

 1-33 1 



7. 



45-13 

 4-88 

 7-74 

 4-49 

 11-90 

 16-97 

 1.-64 



3-95 3-92 7-25 



8. 



17-64 

 7-37 

 7-97 

 2-34 

 3-93 



32-93 



10-70 



17-12 



10. 



52-20 

 13-04 



3-31 

 10-64 



5-63 

 10-09 



0-80 



4.29 



48-73154-59 

 2-90' 8-01 



5-35 



11-62 



5-61 



7-46 



16-06 

 2-27 



1-93 

 14-36 



5-30 

 11-14 



0-84 

 3-8* 



Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 were very fine, full-grown canes from Trinidad, consisting 

 of stalks and leaves, but without the roots ; Nos. 5, 6 and 7 were similar canes 

 from Berbice ; No. 8 from Demarara ; No. 9, of full-grown canes, but with few 

 leaves, from the island of Grenada ; No. 10 from Trelawny, Jamaica, consisting 

 of transparent canes in full blossom, grown about six miles from the sea and ma- 

 nured with cattle dung ; No. 11, of transparent canes from St. James's, Jamaica, 

 growing about two hundred yards from the sea, being old rattoons, and also ma- 

 nured with cattle dung ; No. 12, young, transparent canes three and a half miles 

 from the sea, and manured with cattle dung, guano and marl. 



From these analyses, it appears that the cane for successful cultivation re- 

 quires a very large quantity of silicate of potassa and also a considerable amount 

 of the phosphates, few cultivated plants, except the cerealia, require so much. 

 Wheat, or any of the cereals, necessarily causes the removal of a portion of the 

 valuable inorganic constituents of the soil, such as the alkalies, phosphates, &c. 

 ■which can only be returned to it indirectly ; but with sugar the case is quite oth- 

 erwise. Sugar is a purely organic substance, consisting of carbon and the ele- 

 ments of water, all of which can be derived from the atmosphere, and contains 

 neither alkalies nor phosphates ; so that if the ashes of the canes were carefully 

 collected and returned to the soil in an available state, there is no reason why 

 cane might not be grown upon the same lands almost indefinitely. 



In the West Indies, where wood is scarce, the crushed canes are employed as 

 fuel, under the coppers of the boiling-house, to concentrate the syrup, and as the 

 heat required is great, a large amount of the silica and the alkalies present is 

 converted into a hard, insoluble glass, Avhicii in this form being useless, is thrown 

 away. We can therefore readily understand the reason of the rapid exhaustion 

 of their sugar-lands, and the comparatively slow wearing out of those in Lou- 

 isiana, where from the abundance of wood, the cane-trash is never thus cm- 

 ployed, and where in addition to the inorganic ingredients of the cane, the soil 

 receives (at least where the planiership is what it ought to be) the almost 

 equally valuable mineral constituents of the wood itself 



Yours, very obodi.'iitly, CII.\1U.ES UPH.iM SHEI'AKD. 



LONGEVITY IN HORSES.— The Mar<iui.<« of Riimecroix has just lost an Arab mnre. by 

 death, which was Ri.xtylhrce years old, but v.hich dfcoiirtie Iiiul loiii; buoii useless. Mr, Jesse 

 Hill, of Cheddar, the steward of the Marquis of Uatli. lias a mare lie is ready to prove to be in her 

 fiftieth year. She is daily used in hajuese, her chief food beiug bran, potato riuds and grass. 

 (370) 



