114 



little or no value, which might, no doubt, be rendered avail- 

 able for the amelioration of land, amongst which I will merely 

 mention two or three, which, when they can be readily 

 obtained, ought not to be neglected by the farmer. I allude 

 particularly to the scrapings from roads repaired with the 

 foundry dross, and those repaired with lime -stone. The 

 former is said to contain silica, lime, and potash, which are 

 essentials in securing a good crop of corn, and the. latter 

 is carbonate of lime, the beneficial efi*ects of which I believe 

 few will dispute, at least on land where there is not already 

 an excess of calcareous matter. Other road scrapings might 

 also be advantageously applied to stiff land from their 

 mechanical action, though their chemical properties might not 

 be very appreciable. 



After I had made the above detailed experiments, I acci- 

 dentally met with a paragraph in the Farmers Magazine for " 

 January last, which has strengthened and confirmed the ideas 

 that I had previously entertained of the available nature of 

 mining refuse. It states — 



" Count Hompesch, a Belgian gentleman, has taken out a 

 " patent for the preparation of a manure more powerful and 

 " cheaper than any yet invented. His plan is said to consist 

 " in fixing all the volatile parts of nightsoil and other such 

 " substances, by means of the ashes of the oolitic shale of 



Portland. The shale is employed, in the first place, as a 

 " source from which oil, turpentine, and other substances are 



extracted ; the residue goes to the preparation of the 



manure, which is said to be converted somewhere on the 

 " Isle of Dogs, and sold in a dry state in the form of bricks. 

 " As the materials to be thus employed are inexhaustible, 



and at present almost valueless, it is expected that the pre- 



paration of the fertilizer in question will become a matter 

 " of great national importance. As people have become too 

 " wise to wonder at sugar being made from old rags, so will 



