46 



Gas- Water as a Manure, 



usual operation of lime, it is said to furnisli a protection against many of the 

 noxious grubs and insects. 



It is further probable 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, 

 except at a few works where they manufacture volatile ammonia, will, ere 

 long, be extensively used as a manure, either through the intervention of 

 the water-cart, or by the process of saturating and decomposing soil or 

 vegetable matter. A very satisfactory illustration, on a small scale, has 

 recently been submitted to the English Agricultural Society by the intelli- 

 gent curator of the Polytechnic Gallery, 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 Society it was reduced to a black mass of vegetable 

 mould, strongly impregnated with volatile salts, and in comminuted parti- 

 cles similar to surface peat-mould. 



I have reason to believe that, in an experiment on tanners' bark, now in 

 progress in my neighbourhood, the results will be satisfactory. When 

 applied in its liquid form to grass-land, like salt, it apparently destroys the 

 plant, but the spot is distinguished by increased verdure the succeeding 

 year. 



VI IL — An Essay on the simplest and easiest Mode of Analysing 

 Soils : to which the Prize of twenty pounds was awarded in 

 December, 1838. By the Rev. W. L. Rham, A.M., Vicar of 

 Winkfield, Berks. 



It is presumed that tlie object of the English Agricultural So- 

 ciety, in offering a prize for the best account of the cheapest and 

 simplest mode of analysing soils, is to encourage farmers unac- 

 quainted with chemistry to make experiments on soils of known 

 fertility, comparing them with others, in order to discover the cir- 

 cumstances which chiefly influence fertility, and the means by 

 which less fertile soils may be improved. 



The writer of the following Essay has no expectation that the 

 little light which his experience enables him to throw on this sub- 

 ject should be thought worthy of a prize, even if no better mode 

 of analysing soils should be offered by men fully acquainted with 

 all the mysteries of chemistry. But as it may furnish hints to 

 those who are interested in the progress of scientific agriculture, 

 he ventures to describe a very simple mode of analysing soils, 

 which he has found useful in practice, if not so absolutely perfect 

 as those which are recommended by chemical writers. 



Every practical agriculturist will allow that, besides climate, 

 exposure, and other local circumstances, the fertility of a field de- 

 pends more on the texture and division of the component parts of 

 the soil, and its consequent affinity to Avater, than on the absolute 



