504 On the Quality of Creosote suitable for protecting 
These losses being distributed as follows : — 
A.lbutni- 
noid. 
Chloro- 
phyll and 
Organic 
Acids 
(Ether 
Extract). 
Fibre. 
Soluble 
Carbo- 
hydrates. 
^sli flnd 
Sand. 
100 kilogrammes greenl 
lucerne, dry . . . . / 
kilogrs. 
26-69 
kilogrs. 
4-44 
kilogrs. 
22-54 
kilogrs. 
37-12 
kilogrs. 
9-21 
72-9 kilogrammes sour\ 
silage, dry / ' ' 
16-95 
6-41 
20-43 
20-79 
8-32 
27 "1 kilogrammes loss in) 
- 9-74 
+ 1-97 
-211 
-16-33 
-0-89 
I am now engaged in carrying out experiments on silage at 
Crawley-mill Farm, Woburn ; and also on a larger scale at Heath 
Farm, Woburn Park, where the Duke of Bedford has lately 
erected several silos. These experiments have special reference 
to the influence of temperature on the quality of the product, 
and to tracing the changes and ascertaining the losses which 
various kinds of green food undergo during the process of 
ensilage. These results I hope to be able to publish before 
long in the 'Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of 
England.' 
12, Hanover Square. 
August, 1884. 
XVII. — On the Quality of Creosote suitable for protecting Hop- 
poles, Wood Fences, Sfc, against Decay. By Dr. AUGUSTUS 
VoELCKER, F.R.S., Consulting Chemist to the Society. 
Commercial creosote, a dark-brown thickish liquid, strongly 
smelling of carbolic acid, has been used for years past, as is 
well known, with much success, for protecting from decay hop- 
poles, stakes, and wooden railings, which, being made from 
young and more or less immature or green wood, enter into 
decay, and become rotten and useless, after a few years, especially 
on naturally stiff and imperfectly drained land. 
The creosoting process has been found so efficacious that it 
has almost completely superseded the older plans of impreg- 
nating wood with corrosive sublimate, as in Ryan's process, or 
with sulphate of copper, sulphate of iron, chloride of zinc, or 
other metallic salts. 
Recently, however, several complaints have reached me re- 
