BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. th 
the belief that roasted leather can have any definite money value as a 
manure. On comparing these results with those given on page 258, 
Vol. I., of this Bulletin, it will be seen that, under the conditions which 
obtain in these experiments, plants can get a supply of nitrogenous 
food from ordinary loams and peats about as well as they can get it 
from ‘the roasted sole leather. The experiments upon sponge and 
authracite were too few in number and too little varied in kind to 
give results of any importance, and the results actually obtained were 
not of a nature to encourage further research. Both the sponge and 
the powdered anthracites, especially the anthracite with which no sand 
was admixed, seemed to yield some traces of nitrogenous food to the 
plants, but these traces were very faint. It can be said only that the 
crops obtained from the sponge and the anthracite were a little better, 
or tended to be a little better, than those from the cotton or the 
unroasted leathers. 
It was noticed that the buckwheat seeds germinated uncommonly 
well in the powdered anthracites, to which no sand had been added, 
apparently because of the lightness of this material, which permits 
the rootlets of the seedling to move freely among its particles. It is 
not unlikely that anthracite dust, sifted to a proper size and washed 
free from impurities, may be found to be better fitted for striking cut- 
tings, in some cases, than the sand ordinarily employed to that end by 
florists. 
