BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 383 
Europe through the practice which prevails there to a certain extent of 
mixing sulphocyanide of ammonium (or sulphate of ammonia that is 
contaminated with the sulphocyanide) with phosphatic manures. The 
sulphocyanide is obtained in considerable quantities at very small cost, 
as an incidental product in one of the processes ordinarily employed for 
purifying illuminating gas. It is thrown upon the market at a low 
price, and has doubtless been a good deal used by careless and unscru- 
pulous manufacturers of the so-called ammoniated superphosphates. An 
advertisement such as the following, copied from the “ London Chem- 
ical News” of Nov. 20, 1874, —“ Sulphocyanide Ammonium: About 
20 tons for sale, containing nitrogen equal to 384 per cent ammonia,’— 
would naturally attract the attention of dealers in manures, and would 
be likely to tempt the unprincipled. It should again be said, however, 
that the sulphocyanide, though inadmissible as an ingredient of mixed 
manures, may eventually prove to be of real value to the farmer as an 
agent for destroying insects, fungi, and weeds. 
VI. A sample of saltpetre waste obtained from a manufacturer of 
gunpowder in the winter of 1874, by Henry Saltonstall, Esq. Two 
analyses of the sample gave the following results : — 
a B. ‘Two Analyses. 
Moisture. . . - . . . 4.94% — 
FotasnfK30) ... =. . 26.61 26.70 26.65 
ern... . 18S 1.37 1.63 
Nitric acid (N,0;) . . . 7.28 7.59 7.44 
Mapemurogen. . . .'. . 1.89 1.97 1.93] 
The sample represented thirty tons of the waste which had accumu- 
lated at the powder mill, and the lot was offered for sale at 14 cents 
per pound, delivered in Boston. At the time when the sample was 
procured, nitrogen in the form of nitrate of soda cost rather more than 
24 cents (currency)*per pound in Boston; and potash in the form of 
muriate of potash was worth 5} cents per pound, as was stated on page 
379. Hence the saltpetre waste could be credited with 46 cents per 
hundred pounds on account of the nitrogen contained in it, and with 
$1.47 on account of the potash. It was intrinsically worth nearly 
two cents per pound, although offered for sale at a cent and a half. 
There are, doubtless, a number of localities in this country, in 
the vicinity of powder mills, where small quantities of saltpetre 
