04 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



Pakt II. — Report on General Work in the 

 Chemical Laboratory. 



CHARLES A. GOESSMANN. 



1. Analysis of materials sent on for examination. 



2. Notes on wood ashes. 



3. Notes on sludge, its agricultural value. 



4. Notes on pbospliatic slag, as a source of phosphoric acid for 



manurial purposes. 



1. Analyses of Materials sent on for Examination. 



During the past season 237 materials have been received 

 and the results of our examination have been published in 

 detail in bulletins 65, 68 and 70 of the Hatch Experiment 

 Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, together 

 with the results of the official inspection of commercial fer- 

 tilizers. 



The responsibility of the genuineness of the articles sent 

 on for examination rests in all cases with the parties asking 

 for analyses, and our pul)lication of results merely refers to 

 the locality from which they come. It is evident, from the 

 increase each year of the num])er of materials sent in for 

 analysis, that there is a growing interest taken in this work, 

 and individuals are realizing the value of such chemical 

 investigations. 



The waste products of our industries are becoming from 

 year to year more numerous and important. As the current 

 modes of manufacture are constantly undergoing changes 

 which affect seriously their commercial manurial value, fre- 

 quent investigation of this class of materials cannot help but 

 prove l)eneficial to the farmer, and hence arrangements are 

 made to attend to the examination of these materials to the 



