250 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



in composition which have been noticed in these refuse salines. 

 Saltpetre waste can only be relied on when accompanied with 

 a specified analysis regarding its percentage of nitric acid and 

 potassium oxide. 



Waste Lime from a Gas-house. 



Moisture and volatile organic matter, . . . .21.60 24.00 



Calcium oxide, 44.28 40.00 



Sulphur (=n sulphuric acid, 5.0 — 4.35), . . . 2.00 1.74 



Insoluble in mineral acids, 5.28 15.00 



The waste lime from gas-houses varies to a considerable 

 degree in regard to the absolute quantity, as well as to the 

 relative proportion of its essential constituents ; the state of 

 moisture usually controls the former ; while the quality of the 

 quicklime used, and the way in which it has been turned to 

 account, decides mainly the latter condition. The essential 

 constituents of gas-house waste lime in its fresh state, are 

 carbonate of lime, hydrate of lime, sulphide and hyposulphite 

 of lime, with a varying, yet small quantity of the products of 

 dry distillation of coal, — as carbolic acid and higher hydro- 

 carbons, etc. This waste* material ought to be well exposed 

 to the action of the air before it is applied as a fertilizer, for 

 it is desirable that the sulphur should be higher oxidized, 

 to sulphuric acid, on account of the injurious action of the 

 sulphur, and its lower oxidations on growing plants. For 

 this reason it is safest to cast it broadcast during the autumn, 

 and plough, or rather harrow it under during the early part 

 of the spring. The action on the soil and the vegetation is 

 similar to that of air-slacked lime and sulphate of lime ; and it 

 deserves, therefore, a recommendation for some meadow 

 lands, — for clover, tobacco, beans, pease, beets, etc., — as a 

 special fertilizer. 



Ward's Fertilizer. 

 The material which served for the following analysis was 

 collected of O. B. Hadwen, Esq., of Worcester, Mass. It 



