350  Annual  Report  for  1909  of  the  Consulting  Chemist. 
6.  Tanyard  Refuse. 
On  a farm  in  Kent,  tanyard  refuse  was  being  used,  and  a 
sample  sent  me  for  analysis  gave  results  as  follows  : — 
Percentage  of — 
Moisture  ........  37’50 
Mineral  matter .......  8‘86 
including  sand  ......  3’04 
Nitrogen  ........  4’55 
Equal  to  ammonia  ......  5'52 
The  price  was  50s.  per  ton,  but  the  material  was  in  bad 
condition  and  difficult  to  handle,  so  that  the  price  must  be 
considered  rather  above  the  real  value. 
7.  Road  Scrapings. 
Where  employed  for  improving  the  mechanical  condition 
and  texture  of  land,  road  scrapings  may  be  often  advan- 
tageously used,  but  their  direct  manurial  value  is,  as  a rule, 
but  small.  This  is  shown  by  the  following  analysis  of  a 
sample  of  road  scrapings,  a contract  having  been  entered  into 
for  the  taking  of  these  at  the  rate  of  IZ.  a mile  throughout  the 
year  : — 
Moisture  ........  13-40 
' Organic  matter . ......  3-61 
Oxide  of  iron  and  alumina  ....  4-13 
Lime  ........  '50 
Phosphoric  acid  ......  ’20 
Sand 77-33 
' Containing  nitrogen  ......  '086 
Equal  to  ammonia  ......  -104 
This,  it  will  be  seen,  was  little  better  than,  if  equal  to, 
ordinary  soil,  so  far  as  concerns  manurial  value. 
C.  Miscellaneous. 
1.  Magnesia  in  Soils. 
In  my  last  Report  I drew  attention  to  a point  which  had 
engaged  me  for  a considerable  time,  and  on  which  I have 
carried  out,  and  still  am  conducting,  experiments  at  the  Woburn 
Experimental  Station.  I refer  to  the  matter  of  soils  containing 
magnesia  in  excess  of  the  lime  in  them,  and  in  such  cases  I 
have  frequently,  if  not  universally,  found  that  crops  will  not 
