PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 463 



woolen waste for cold soils to render them warm enough to pro- 

 duce plants which are raised upon other soils analogous in their 

 condition. They warm the soil almost like a preparation from 

 the hotbed. Then we find also that wool contains phosphates 

 and sulphur, or perhaps more accurately phosphorus and sul- 

 phur, and especially that substance known as the yolk of wool; 

 and they are so readily soluble that if sheep be improperly 

 washed before shearing, the weight of the wool may be reduced 

 30 per cent. This phosphorus is so much progressed that it is 

 of high value as a fertilizing material. So with the sulphur j 

 for in its decomposition it does not form sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 but readily and immediately passes into sulphuric acid and forms 

 surphates, and that, too, of a character very superior to the 

 crude sulphuric acid which is seemingly the same. Thus when 

 you treat phosphate of lime with sulphuric acid, you change one 

 atom of the lime into the sulphate of lime ; but it is not such 

 sulphate of lime as we get from Nova Scotia. It is not plaster 

 of paris, worth $4 a ton. It is worth 11 cents a pound to any 

 farmer, and is of greater value per pound than bone phosphates. 

 Its functions are changed entirely. It bears no relation to the 

 mineral, as to solubility, for it is extremely soluble. And so it 

 is with every constituent of woolen rags. They are all exactly 

 in the condition to be readily appropriated by plants, and are 

 consequently of a much higher value than is usually attributed 

 to them. In composts they ensure a rapid decomposition, and, 

 strange to say, without the usual fire-fanging that we find in 

 rapidly decomposed composts. They form, with an}' potash they 

 meet with in the soil, a peculiar soap. The soap made from the 

 yolk of wool is such as we see prepared by Lowe of London, and 

 called the " army shaving soap." The action is very different 

 from the mere action of crude fat upon potash or lime. The 

 stearite of lime will do no such duty. Those who hold to the 

 nitrogenous theory must be aware that the albumen of the wool, 

 upon decomposition, gives them very largely the thing they call 

 for. Chevreaux states that 100 parts of thoroughly dried wool 

 contain 26.06 parts of inorganic substance ; and adding to this 

 the 32 parts of fatty matter, you perceive that 59 parts of the 

 whole weight of the wool are exactly what the agriculturists call 

 for. 



I will now suspend my remarks, and devote the remaining time 

 to answering questions. 



