Nevertheless, in some respects, the residue from a good acetylene
generator is a more valuable material, agriculturally speaking, than pure
lime. It contains a certain amount of sulphur, &c., and it therefore
somewhat resembles the spent or gas lime of the coal-gas industry. This
sulphur, together, no doubt, with the traces of acetylene clinging to it,
renders the residue a valuable material for killing the worms and vermin
which tend to infest heavily manured and under-cultivated soil. Acetylene
lime has been found efficacious in exterminating the "finger-and-toe" of
carrots, the "peach-curl" of peach-trees, and in preventing cabbages from
being "clubbed." It may be applied to the ground alone, or after
admixture with some soil or stable manure. The residue may also be
employed, either alone or mixed with some agglomerate, in the
construction of garden paths and the like.
If the residues are suitably diluted with water and boiled with (say)
twice their original weight of flowers of sulphur, the product consists
of a mixture of various compounds of calcium and sulphur, or calcium
sulphides--which remain partly in solution and partly in the solid state.
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