On the relations of technology to agriculture / by George Wilson.

Date:
[1856?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the relations of technology to agriculture / by George Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    production of nitre. Having an eye also to the agriculture of the world, I refer, in as many words, to the important insect derivatives, honey, wax, silk, shell-lac, cochineal, and carmine, and to the arts to which they minister. All the trades, arts, and manufactures referred to are based upon the cultivation of the soil. As the money-profit of agricul- ture must largely depend upon the value of the products which it directly or indirectly furnishes to the markets of the world, the farmer plainly has a deep interest in the uses to which his produce is put by the followers of other callings, and these uses he can no- where so intelligently learn as in an Industrial Museum. Farther, the cost of producing a cart of hay, a waggon-load of turnips, a sack of wheat, a Christmas turkey, a well-fed lamb, or a fat ox, varies of necessity with the cost of the materials required for its production. Now, these materials are in demand for the production of other commodities, and the agriculturist has an inte- rest in knowing what these commodities and who their producers are. Let me illustrate this by an example or two. _ The bones of animals have a high agricultural, and therefore a high commercial value. The farmer of Great Britain would be glad to have all the dead animal bones in the world at his disposal. But in the bone-mai-ket he must purchase against many competi- tors. The price of bones is raised against him by Firstly, The ivory-turner, who converts them into spoons, brush-handles, buttons, and ornaments. Secondly, The glue-maker, size-maker, or jelly-maker, who extracts their gelatine from them. Thirdly, The sugar-refiner, who requires them for the ivory- black with which he bleaches his syrup. Fourthly, The refiner of metals and assayer of gold and sil- ver, who finds the powder of calcined bones superior to every- thing else as a material for his cupels, those peculiar cups and basins in which precious metals, and especially silver, are separated in the furnace from the common metals, such as lead and copper. Fifthly, The manufacturer of porcelain, who has long ago dis- covered that calcined bones greatly improve the quality of china, so that in Staffordshire they find their way to the potter much more readily than to the farmer. Sixthly, The lucifer-match maker, who employs bones to yield phosphorus, and whose manufacture, insignificant though it may appear to be, is sufficient, in England alone, to divert shiploads of bones from the farmer. Seventhly, The pharmaceutical chemist, who prepares from bones, phosphoric acid, phosphate of soda, and the other phosphates used in medicine. Here are seven competitors in bone-buying against the farmer. A great extension of any of their trades must raise the cost of
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