202 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
scribed by Berzelius. It does not decompose on being heated either with 
nitric acid, with nitrate of iron, or With nitrate of ammonia. On fusing 
it with bisulphate of soda or bisulphate of potash, it seems to be scarcely 
at all acted upon at first. Only after repeated fusions with the bisulphate 
does it wholly disappear. When fused repeatedly with fresh portions of 
a mixture of borax and carbonate of soda it can be destroyed somewhat 
more rapidly, especially if the residue left by each fusion be heated with 
strong chlorhydric acid. It is not strange that the discoverers of the 
phosphide mistook it for a new metal. ; 
It is to be remarked in this connection that Schloesing found his pro- 
cess of analysis, described above on page 200, inapplicable to phosphate 
ofiron. From that substance he could not expel the phosphorus by his 
process of heating with carbonic oxide and silica. 
It is safe to assume that any phosphide of i iron that may occur in wood- 
ashes will be wholly devoid of agricultural value. 
Whatever the explanation of the fact may be, the loss of phosphoric 
acid from vegetable matter that is burnt to ashes is a point of some 
significance for the practical farmer. Not only does it appear from the 
analyses here recorded, that wood-ashes are in general of somewhat 
less consequence as a phosphatic manure than had been supposed 
hitherto ; but a new objection to the use of fire in agriculture may 
henceforth be urged. It is now plainer than ever that the processes of 
fermentation and decay that occur in the compost heap are better agents 
than fire for the reduction of coarse vegetable matter to the condition 
of manure. When weeds, clods, chips, and brushwood are composted, 
it is not only their nitrogen that is saved and put to use, but the whole 
of the phosphates and other inorganic matters that are contained in 
them. 
Note on the Phosphoric Acid in Leached Ashes. 
It is to be remarked, with regard to the small proportion of phosphoric 
acid in wood-ashes, that the results obtained by Professor Johnson,* of 
New Haven, in his recent examination of leached ashes, such as are obtain- 
able in New England, go to corroborate those recorded above. Johnson 
analyzed four samples of leached ashes ; viz., No. I. a sample taken by 
himself from a large heap of leached ashes at an ‘‘ ashery’’ at Deer 
River, Lewiston, New York. Nos. Il. and II. from separate cargoes of 
leached ashes brought from Canada, the first in 1863, and the last in 
1873, and No. IV. from a soapboiler’s in New Haven ; this last had 
been adulterated with coal-ashes. 
* “New York Druggists’ Circular,” Dec. 1878, p. 202; from a “ Report to 
the Connecticut State Board of Agriculture.” 
