152  A  New  Source  of  Potash  Supply.     {AMApJr^;  mf^ 
A  NEW  SOURCE  OF  POTASH  SUPPLY. 
By  Herbert  Hazard. 
An  Inaugural  Essay. 
The  present  sources  of  the  potash  supply  are  rapidly  failing  ;  every 
year  the  area  of  the  supply  becomes  smaller,  and  the  product,  in  conse- 
quence of  this  and  the  increased  demand,  becomes  more  and  more  ex- 
pensive. At  the  rate  the  country  has  been  settled  and  the  woods  de- 
stroyed for  the  past  ten  or  fifteen  years,  the  source  of  supply  in  the 
United  States  will,  in  a  comparatively  few  years,  almost  entirely  fail. 
States  which,  a  few  years  since  furnished  large  quantities  of  ashes, 
now  furnish  none  ;  wood  has  become  too  valuable  in  the  arts  to  be 
burned  even  for  fuel.  The  people  as  well  as  the  Governments,  in 
the  older  States,  have  commenced  to  discuss  the  ways  and  means  of 
perpetuating  their  hard-wood  forests,  both  as  a  protection  to  the  land 
and  for  mechanical  purposes.  Soft  woods  do  not  yield  enough  of  the 
salts  to  pay  for  working  their  ashes  ;  hence  we  are  driven  to  the 
newly-settled  portions  of  the  West .  and  Northwest  for  our  present 
supply,  the  largest  portion  of  which  comes  from  Michigan  and  Wis- 
consin, where  the  trees  are  cut  down  and  burned  as  the  readiest  means 
of  clearing  them  from  the  land.  But  as  the  population  of  these  States 
is  rapidly  increasing,  and  railroad  lines  are  being  proportionately  ex- 
tended, the  forests  are  brought  into  more  direct  communication  with 
the  lakes  and  large  cities,  thus  finding  a  market  for  their  timber  ;  and 
the  saw-mill  will  then  use  up  ail  the  surplus  trees,  which  will  go  into 
commerce  as  lumber  instead  of  ashes,  as  at  present ;  these  causes  will 
very  much  reduce,  if  not  wholly  terminate,  the  present  supply  from 
the  Northwestern  as  they  have  from  the  Eastern  States.  . 
The  forests  of  the  Old  World,  by  care  and  cultivation,  still  furnish 
large  quantities  of  potash,  but  never  sufficient  for  home  consumption, 
therefore  this  source  of  supply  is  not  available  to  us  ;  again,  the  de- 
mand for  these  salts  is  constantly  increasing,  both  in  medicine  and  in 
the  arts,  two  more  very  cogent  reasons  why  a  never-failing  source  of 
supply  should  be  secured. 
This,  it  seems,  can  be  accomplished  in  the  following  manner: 
Throughout  the  Western  States  large  quantities  of  corn  are  produced, 
the  cobs  of  which  are  now  considered  of  little  or  no  value,  yet  they 
may  share  the  same  fate  as  many  substances  which,  though  formerly 
considered  worthless,  have  become  new  mines  of  wealth  through  the 
aid  of  chemistry.  By  the  following  assays  and  comparisons,  I  pro- 
pose to  demonstrate  their  value  to  pharmacy  and  the  arts. 
