21st clause it is enacted, that the day on which the cattle market shall be held shall be Tuesday in each week, or such other day as the company shall fix under the "Markets and Fairs Clauses Act, 1847; provided that such new day be subject to the approval of the court of Quarter Sessions; the hour for opening the market to be not later than nine in the forenoon, and for closing not later than three in the afternoon. The next clause enacts, that if at any time the said new market place shall be found not sufficiently capacious, the Company are empowered to enlarge the same from time to time as occasion may require. The 23d clause refers to an arrangement entered into between the Corporation of the Borough of Reading and the Cattle Market Company, by which the latter are to pay to the former the sum of £5 annually by way of royalty, or compensation for the rents, tolls, &c., arising from the present cattle market, the same to be paid on the 25th of December every year for ever; and if not paid within seven days after any of the annual days of payment, the goods and chattels of the Company may be distrained upon. The next clause empowers the mayor of the borough for the time being (as the clerk of the market) to hold any fairs or marts in the new cattle market, on paying a compensation to the Company for the use of the same, and for any damage which may be occasioned thereby. Lands to be appropriated by the Company for extraordinary purposes not to exceed three acres. The 26th clause refers to the tolls to be taken, which are thus specified in a second schedule :— : For every covered and uncovered shed, stall, bulk, standing-place, or station, used for exposing to sale any cattle or live stock, tolls not exceeding the following, per day or part of a day, as the case may be for every superficial yard, 6d. For the exposure to sale of horses, cattle, or live stock, as follows: that is to say, for every horse, mare, or gelding, colt or filly, 6d.; mule or ass, 3d.; bull, ox, cow, heifer, or steer, 6d.; calf, 3d.; score of sheep, lambs, or pigs, Is. 8d. And so in proportion for any greater or smaller number of sheep or lambs; one or more, not exceeding ten, to be paid for as a half of a score. And for any greater or smaller number of pigs, one or more, not exceeding five, to be paid for as a quarter of a score. The Company are empowered to lease standings in the market for any term not exceeding three years; lessees restrained from assigning lease of standings without the consent of the Company. All the clauses and provisions of the following acts (except where expressly varied) are to be incorporated with, and form part of, this act; namely, "The Companies Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845," "The Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845," and "The Markets and Fairs Clauses Act, 1847." Nothing contained in this act to exempt the Company from the provisions of the "Public Health Act, 1848." In citing this act in legal instruments, it will be sufficient to use the expression, "Reading Cattle Market Act, 1850." The Cambridge Corporation Act.-This act (cap. 37) was passed with a two-fold object; first, for regulating the markets and fairs held within the borough of Cambridge, and at Reach in the same county, and for enlarging the market-place;" and secondly, for rebuilding the Guildhall, and effecting other municipal improvements in the said borough. Our analysis will be confined to the former purposes of this act, as more immediately applicable to these pages. The corporation of the borough are the authorised undertakers for carrying this act into execution, and are empowered to borrow money for that purpose, on mortgage or bond, not exceeding £40,000, to be secured on the credit of the borough fund: 1 per cent on all monies borrowed to be set apart as a sinking fund for paying off the same. The lands to be taken or appropriated by the Corporation for extraordinary purposes, not to exceed twenty acres. The whole of the houses in Warwick Street, Cambridge, are intended to be purchased for the purpose of applying the site of the same to the enlarging and rendering more commodious the existing market-place. By the 25th clause, the Corporation are empowered to provide slaughter-houses; and from the passing of this act, (July 15, 1850,) all existing tolls in the markets and fairs are abolished, and a new rate substituted. The tolls, stalls, &c. may be leased for any term not exceeding three years. The duration of Midsummer Fair is thus defined in the 32d clause : And for removing doubts as to the legal period of holding the fair of Barnwell, commonly called Midsummer Fair, be it declared and enacted, that that fair shall commence on the 22d day of June (or if that day be Sunday, on the Monday next following) at twelve of the clock at noon, or at such earlier hour as the same shall be proclaimed by the mayor, and shall continue for the three days (exclusive of Sunday) next following the day of the commencement thereof, and no longer. The next clause enacts that all booths and shows in every fair shall be closed before twelve o'clock at night on any Saturday during which such fair shall continue, and on such other days as the mayor shall, by public notice, direct; and no such booth or show shall be opened on any Sunday, or on any day except during the continuance of the fair. The legal limits and bounds of Reach fair are defined to be "all places situate within half-a-mile of the site of the ancient chapel in Reach." The provisions of "The Markets and Fairs Clauses Act, 1847," with respect to the selling or exposing for sale any unwholesome meat, &c., to extend to all places within the limits of this act, as well as to the markets and fairs. A penalty of forty shillings for the first offence, and £5 for the second or any following offence, is imposed on persons using any dog or goat for the purpose of drawing any cart, carriage, truck, or barrow." Two schedules appended to the act describe the respective localities of the borough in which certain house property and land will be required for the foregoing purposes; these are Union Street, Market Hill, Saint Mary's Street, Warwick Street, and Saint Mary's Passage. A third schedule specifies in extenso the stallages, rents, and tolls henceforth to be taken in the Corn Exchange, in the markets, and at the fairs. In citing this act in legal instruments, it will be sufficient to use the expression "The Cambridge Corporation Act, 1850." THE FARMERS' NOTE-BOOK, No. XXXI. Composition of House Coal Soot.-By DR AUGUSTUS VOELCKER, Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.-Soot has latterly been strongly recommended as a useful addition to the manure-heap, or as a top-dressing for potatoes, oats, wheat, and artificial grasses; and its effects on vegetation are indeed so well known to all who have tried it, that they willingly pay as much as 4d. or 5d. per bushel for it. Though we possess several partial analyses, no complete one has as yet been undertaken of soot by any chemist. To supply this want I engaged in the examination of it, and have chosen the soot that is to be purchased in preference to samples, which I might readily have collected myself. Commercial soot, as bought soot may be termed, is never collected so carefully, and generally contains more mineral matters; and the quantity of ammonia in it appears to vary according to the height of the chimney from which it is taken-consequently the analyses of a small portion can never afford so fair an idea of its average composition, as that of a sample taken from a large quantity, such as is actually to be found in the market. 1. Water. The amount of mixture in house coal soot was found to be 10.620 per cent. 2. Mineral matters.-When burned, the sample examined left a reddish ash, amounting to 42.926 per cent in soot in the natural state, or 48.027 per cent when dried at 212°. This large quantity of ash results partly from coal ash, which had been carried up by the draught, and partly from accidental impurities, such as the mortar of the chimney, sand, &c. As a variable quantity of ash in soot is obtained from different varieties of coal, it is likely to contain a smaller or larger proportion of mineral substances. Professor Johnston, to whom we owe a partial analysis of soot, has shown this to be the case. He found that soot of the Durham caking-coal, No. 1, gave a red ash, = 291 per cent of the soot. = 25 do. do. = = 48 do. do. = 18 do. do. The weight of a bushel of soot varies greatly, which perhaps is chiefly to be ascribed to the larger or smaller proportion of mineral matters contained in it. On examining the chemical nature of the ash left on burning soot in an open platinum crucible, I found it to consist of the following substances:-Oxide of iron, alumina, lime, magnesia, potash, soda, silica, sand and clayey matters, sulphuric and phosphoric acids. The sulphuric acid appears to be all combined with lime in gypsum. Gypsum is present in the ash in large quantities, and may be readily extracted from it by boiling-water; on evaporating the liquid to a small bulk, the gypsum separates in minute but distinct hard white crystals. The ash contained no chlorine. Having found, however, that a watery solution, tested with nitrate of silver, while observing the necessary precautions which have to be attended to, gave me distinct indications of the presence of chlorine, this element must have been driven off by the heat at which the carbon of the soot was burned away. Like all kinds of soot, this sample contained considerable quantities of ammonia, partly in combination with chlorine, partly with that of sulphuric acid. When sulphate of ammonia is heated with chloride of sodium or chloride of potassium, we obtain by double decomposition the sulphates of soda or potash, which remain behind, and the chloride of ammonium, or sal ammoniac, is expelled by the heat. In soot, we find, as I shall presently show by the results of an analysis made by my assistant, Mr Williams, under my direction, chloride of ammonium, or sal ammoniac, chlorides of potassium and sodium, and sulphate of ammonia; but neither the chlorine of the sal ammoniac, nor that of the fixed alkaline chlorides, can be detected in the ash of soot, because all the chlorine had been expelled in combination with ammonia, by the burning. Sal ammoniac partly exists ready formed in soot, and partly it results from the decomposition of chloride of potassium and sodium, which takes place at the high temperature at which the soot-ash is obtained. The watery solution of soot is coloured deep brown by organic substances, which render the determination of chlorine in the usual way inapplicable. In order to secure an accurate estimation of the quantity of chlorine, I caused a portion of soot to be burned with a quantity of chemically pure carbonate of soda, sufficiently large to retain all the chlorine. 3. Organic matters.-Soot boiled with water and filtered, furnishes a deep reddish-brown coloured solution, which, besides soluble inorganic salts, salts of ammonia, and empyreumatic matters, contains several organic acids, similar to those which may be obtained by boiling peat-mould with water. When soot is treated with a dilute solution of carbonate of soda, after having been washed until the water passes through the filter quite colourless, which takes a very long time in doing, the solution again assumes a deep reddish-brown colour. Muriatic acid, added to this solution until it becomes slightly acid, throws down a copious brown precipitate, which consists of several organic acids. Amongst these humic and ulmic acid are found, two substances which are present in smaller or larger quantities in all fertile soils. Thus treated, the organic part of soot, consisting chiefly of finely divided black carbon, still contains a mixture of organic compounds, known under the names of insoluble humus or coally humus. Caustic potash renders these substances soluble; and by boiling soot, which first has been washed with water, and subsequently with carbonate of soda, with a solution of caustic potash, again a deep brown coloured liquid is obtained, from which a flaky brown precipitate is thrown down by adding muriatic acid in a slight excess. The presence of ammoniacal salts in soot is readily discovered by a strong smell of ammonia, when it is moistened with water and mixed with a little quicklime. In the following Tables the composition of house coal soot is exhibited-in the first columns in its natural state; in the second, dried at 212 deg. ; whilst the third ones show how much of each ingredient one ton of soot contains. ANALYSES OF HOUSE COAL SOOT. Sample taken from the farm buildings of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. Arranged in chemical compounds, the composition of soot may be represented as follows: : |
