306 Extracts from the Journals. [April, 



the crop which has been grown on, and removed from the land, 

 and in such manner that the character of the alkaline matters 

 used may he changed, and the same rendered less soluble, so that 

 the otherwise soluble alkaline parts of the manure may not be 

 washed away from the other ingredients by the rain falling on the 

 land, and thus separating the same therefrom. And it is the com- 

 bining carbonate of soda or carbonate of potash, or both with 

 carbonate of lime, and also the combining carbonate of potash 

 and soda with phosphate of lime, in such manner as to diminish 

 the solubility of the alkaline salts to be used as ingredients for 

 manure (suitable for restoring to the land the mineral matters 

 taken away by the crop which may have been grown on, and re- 

 moved from the land to be manured), which constitutes the novelty 

 of the invention. 



Although the manures made in carrying out this invention will 

 have various matters combined with the alkaline carbonates, no 

 claim of invention is made thereto separately; and such materials 

 will be varied according to the matters which the land to be ma- 

 nured requires to have returned to it, in addition to the mineral 

 substances above mentioned. The quantity of carbonate or phos- 

 phate of lime, used with carbonate of soda or potash, may be 

 varied according to the degree of solubility desired to be obtain- 

 ed, depending on the locality where the manure is to be used, in 

 order to render the preparation less soluble, in localities where 

 the average quantity of rain falling in the year is great; but as 

 in practice it would be difficult to prepare manures to suit each 

 particular locality with exactness, such average preparation is 

 given as will suit most localities. In making manure according 

 to the invention, carbonate of soda or of potash, or both, are 

 fused in a reverberatory furnace, such as is used in the manufac- 

 ture of soda-ash, with carbonate or phosphate of lime, (and with 

 such fused compounds other ingredients are mixed), so as to pro- 

 duce manures; and such composition, when cold, being ground 

 into powder by edge stones, or other convenient machinery, the 

 same is to be applied to land as manure. And in order to apply 

 such manure with precision, the analysis and weight of the pre- 

 vious crop ought to be known with exactness, so as to return to 

 the land the mineral elements in the weight and proportion in 

 which they have been removed by the crop. 



Two compounds are first prepared, one or other of which is the 

 basis of all manures, which is described as the first and second 

 preparations. 



The first preparation is formed by fusing together two or two 

 and a half parts of carbonate of lime with one part of potash of 

 commerce (containing on an average sixty carbonate of potash, 

 ten sulphate of potash, and ten chloride of potassium, or common 



