I. AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 385 



but also very encouraging in the prospect they give for the 

 cultivation of agricultural science in this country. Among 

 these are a number of experiments " on the agricultural val- 

 ue of the ashes of anthracite." In these experiments, pots 

 were charged with ashes of Pennsylvania anthracite coal, 

 and planted with oats, barley, buckwheat, beans, maize, etc. 

 In some cases they were watered with rain-water alone ; in 

 others, with solutions of nitric acid or phosphoric acid, com- 

 bined with lime, magnesia, potash, ammonia, or of several of 

 these together. The ashes used were free from wood ashes, 

 thus differing from those commonly produced in stoves and 

 furnaces. 



Raised in the ashes with rain-water alone, says Professor 

 Storer, " none of the plants really prospered. The beans and 

 pease grew to a considerable height, but it was plain that the 

 matter of which the new parts were formed came chiefly 

 from the older parts. The nitrogen, at all events, needed 

 for the formation of new leaves and stems, was apparently 

 the same that had taken part in the formation of the first 

 shoots from the seeds." When, however, nitrate of lime was 

 substituted for the rain-water with which the plants had 

 been watered, the plants, before stunted and dying, became 

 thrifty, and in time exhibited a luxuriant growth. The yield 

 of dry substance, when the plants were w r atered with nitrate 

 of lime, was in several cases over fifteen times as much as 

 when pure water was used. "It is plain that the ashes used 

 must have contained appreciable quantities of phosphoric 

 acid and potash, as w T ell as the lime, magnesia, sulphuric acid, 

 and iron, which are necessary for the growth of plants, for on 

 the addition of nitrogenized salts to the ashes abundant crops 

 of buckwheat and barley could be produced. . . . The addi- 

 tion of potash and phosphoric acid did little or no good, while 

 sulphate of magnesia seemed to do harm." 



The question arose whether the pure anthracite coal-ashes 

 were better, in respect to their contents of potash and phos- 

 phoric acid, than ordinary sand. To get light upon this 

 point, experiments quite similar to the above were made with 

 ordinary pit sand, such as is common in the neighborhood of 

 Boston; with pure white quartz sand, such as is used in mak- 

 ing flint-glass; and with New Jersey green sand marl. 



The pure quartz sand was found to contain very little nu- 



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