20 
RESEARCHES ON THE COMPOSITION 
the sun for a few hours, afterwards packed in straw bags 
and kept for a time. They are then moistened with some 
water, spread out on, and covered with, other mats for a few 
days, which operations are repeated from 9 to 25 times 
during a period of from 2-3 months. After this fermentation 
the leaves are reduced in a mortar to a kind of paste which 
is then formed into balls of 3-4 inches diameter. These 
balls, with an addition of potash lye from wood ashes and 
slaked lime and sometimes rice wine, bran, or starch sugar 
(amé), form the material used by dyers in the steeping vat. 
The residues left undissolved or depositing from the fluid are 
sold as manure. 
The stems and leaves of a specimen from Miyodo-gori, 
Tokushima prefecture were analyzed by Mr. T. Yoshii, 
with the following results : The whole plant excl. roots 
contained 83.59 °/ 0 of water and the dry matter was made 
up of 02. 1 parts of stems and 37.9 parts of leaves. In the 
air dry matter there was found : 
X>6UV6S. 
Stems. 
Water. 
17.74 % 
19.65 
Organic matter . 
70.56 „ 
73.17 
Total ash. 
11.70 „ 
7.18 
Total nitrogen . 
3.742 „ 
1.176 
Potash. 
1.612 „ 
2.032 
Soda . 
. 0.116 ., 
0.496 
Lime . 
, 3.040 „ 
1.331 
Magnesia . 
. 1.503 „ 
0.591 
Ferric oxide . 
0.364 ,, 
0.080 
Mangano-manganic oxide. 
, 0.146 ,, 
0.043 
Phosphoric acid . 
. 0.705,, 
0.542 
Sulphuric acid. 
0.381 „ 
0.295 
Carbon dioxide . 
, 1.890 „ 
1.080 
Silica and sand . 
1.462 „ 
0.337 
Chlorine .... 
• 0.398 „ 
0.256 
