GAS-WORKS. 



nearly doubled his crop of hay. (Com. to Board 

 ofdgr. vol. iv. p. 416.) 



" It is probable," says Mr. Handley, " that 

 the ammoniacal liquor which abounds in gas- 

 works, and which, when formerly allowed to 

 run waste into the Thames, was said to destroy 

 the fish and prejudice the quality of the river 

 water for human consumption, and which is 

 Still thrown away throughout the country, ex- 

 cept at a few works where they manufacture 

 sal ammoniac, will, ere long, be extensively 

 used as a manure, either through the interven- 

 tion of the water-cart, or for the process of sa- 

 turating and decomposing soil or vegetable 

 matter. A very satisfactory illustration, on a 

 small scale, has recently been submitted by 

 Mr. Pain. He put into a vessel some leaves 

 of trees, saw-dust, chopped straw, and bran, to 

 which he applied ammonia, and closed it up. 

 In about three weeks the whole was reduced to 

 a slimy mass : he then stirred it, and added a 

 little more ammonia; and when submitted to 

 the English Agricultural Society, it was re- 

 duced to a black mass of vegetable mould, 

 strongly impregnated with volatile salts, and 

 in comminuted particles similar to surface 

 peat mould. When applied in its liquid form 

 to grass, like salt, it apparently destroys the 

 plant; but the spot is distinguished by in- 

 creased verdure the succeeding year." (Eng. 

 Agr. Soc. Journ. vol. i. p. 46.) 



Mr. Paynter, of Boskenna, in Cornwall, has 

 given the result of an experiment made with 

 the water in which street gas had been cleansed, 

 on a piece of barley land. A quarter of an 

 acre was taken in the middle of a field of ra- 

 ther close soil, in a granite district. The land 

 was of average quality ; the gas-water was dis- 

 tributed over the quarter acre by a contrivance 

 resembling that of a common watering cart, 

 and at the rate of 400 gallons to the acre ; about 

 a week before seed time, the rest of the field 

 was manured in the usual way. The differ- 

 ence both in colour and vigour of the barley plant 

 was so strikingly in favour of the part manured 

 by the gas-water, that persons passing within 

 view of the field almost invariably came to 

 inquire about the cause. The yield also was 

 superior, as well as the after-pasture, the field 

 having been laid down with the barley." (Ibid. 

 p. 45.) 



The refuse Lime of Gas-Works. This powder 

 is produced by passing the gas through dry 

 lime, in which operation the earth combines 

 with a quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 from which the coal gas needs purifying, and 

 is partly converted into hydro-sulphuret of 

 lime : in the state that the powder is usually 

 vended by the gas manufacturers, it contains a 

 considerable portion of uncombined lime. The 

 hydro-sulphuret of lime has a bitter and acid 

 taste ; it is soluble in water, and has the pecu- 

 liarly disagreeable smell of sulphuretted hy- 

 drogen. When mixed with or spread upon the 

 soil, it gradually decomposes, a portion of hy- 

 drogen separates from it, and it is converted 

 into sulphuret of lime, which, by absorbing 

 oxygen from the atmosphere, finally becomes 

 sulphate of lime. There is no reason, there- 

 fore, to doubt the fertilizing properties of this 

 manure ; but it is too powerful in its effects 

 5CS 



GAS-WORKS. 



j upon vegetation, to be used in the large pro- 

 portions in which it has been sometimes em- 

 ployed ; and it should not, for these rear.ons, 

 be added to the soil immediately in contact 

 with the seed. It is generally to be obtained 

 at a very moderate rate, and by its gradual 

 conversion to sulphate of lime (gypsum), it 

 must be a very excellent addition to those soils 

 which are described by the farmer as having 

 become " tired of clover." 



"In many parts of the country," says Mr. 

 Handley, " where gas-works are established, 

 the refuse has become an object of interest to 

 the agriculturist, as containing many of the 

 essentials of the most effective manures. 

 The refuse lime which was formerly an incon- 

 venience to the manufacturers, and was carted 

 away as valueless rubbish, is now contracted 

 for by the neighbouring farmers (in an in- 

 stance within my own knowledge at 7s. 6d. per 

 chaldron), and applied either in compost, or in 

 a direct form, to the land, where, in addition to 

 the usual operation of lime, it is said to furnish 

 a protection against many of the noxious grubs 

 and insects." (Ibid.) 



Gas Tar. This substance being produced in 

 smaller quantities, and employed very com- 

 monly as a paint, has not been used as a ma- 

 nure to any extent; but wherever it can be 

 obtained (as I am aware it ever can in some 

 places, almost for the expense of carriage), it 

 is an article every way worthy of the farmer's 

 notice. It is composed entirely of substances 

 which enter into the composition of all plants, 

 is gradually decomposed in the soil, is power- 

 ful in its effects, and still more so from its con- 

 taining a considerable portion of the carbo- 

 nate and acetate of ammonia ; hence it is best 

 applied mixed with earth, so as to be easily 

 and evenly spread over the ground. These 

 facts will explain some of the phenomena wit- 

 nessed in the recent experiments of Mr. Bow- 

 ley with gas refuse, at Sidington, Gloucester- 

 shire. He says (Farm. Mag. vol. ix. p. 197), 

 "I have long used the refuse of the gas-house 

 as a manure ; my usual practice is to form out 

 my compost-heap with long dung about three 

 feet deep, pour the coal tar regularly over it, 

 then put another layer of dung or turf, throw 

 up the lime on the top, allow it to remain in 

 this state two or three months before it is 

 turned. The lime should not be under the tar 

 in the first instance, as the tar will find its way 

 through the dung, and unite with the lime into 

 a hard cement, in which state, even if, with 

 considerable labour, it is broken into small par- 

 ticles, I believe it to be of little service on the 

 land. 



"After pursuing the above system for some 

 time, I resolved to try some experiments with 

 each in its unsophisticated state. I accordingly 

 commenced with the tar, which I had poured 

 out of a watering-pot, in a small stream, regu- 

 larly over about half an acre in a field of rye- 

 grass ; this was done in February, 1838. Soon 

 afterwards, the seeds presented the rather sin- 

 gular appearance of having been burnt in 

 stripes with a hot iron, for the tar had com- 

 pletely destroyed all it touched, and I was told 

 I had poisoned the land, and it would never re- 

 cover itself; however, in June, I noticed that the 



