00 MODERN HIGH FARMING. 



After having undergone the refining process, it contains 95 

 per cent, of pure nitrate of soda, and 14 to 16 per cent, of nitro- 

 gen, and is then found to be a highly stimulating manure for grass- 

 growing in meadow lands. 



In consequence, however, of its very high price, it is frequently, 

 if not generally, the object of adulteration, and should, therefore, 

 never be purchased from any but respectable firms with a written 

 guarantee of its analytical contents. Even when this is obtained, it 

 should not be employed before its genuineness has been ascertained, 

 and the following rough but sufficiently accurate test can be 

 applied by every farmer, when no chemical laboratory is near at 

 hand. 



A small portion of the nitrate is to be mixed in a tea cup with 

 sufficient oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid), to just cover it, when, if a 

 copious quantity of greenish, suffocating vapor be given off, it will 

 be evident that the article contains a large proportion of common 

 salt, this being, from the similarity of its appearance, the adulterant 

 generally used. 



Nitrate of soda plays a very leading part in the manufacture of 

 sulphuric acid, as will be seen later on, being used in the proportion 

 of about 5 per cent, of the weight of sulphur consumed. 



The fact of its costing from fifty to sixty dollars per ton, renders 

 the question of its economical application one of the most difficult 

 with which manufacturers have still to deal ; and there are unfortu- 

 nately many works where, owing to unskillful manipulation, instead 

 of five per cent., double that quantity more correctly expresses what 

 is used or wasted. 



Supposing, therefore, that in an acid works which burns 2,000 

 tons of sulphur per annum, in any of its forms, 10 per cent, of 

 nitrate is consumed, we may fairly consider that there is an unnec- 

 essary waste of 100 tons of nitrate of soda, and this at $50 per ton 

 represents a yearly dead loss of $5,000. 



There are a great number of our sulphuric acid mannfacturers who 

 do not give this matter sufficient attention, and who, consequently 

 can make no real profits on their acid productions. 



