CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 177 



selects such materials and in such quantities as are adapted to its wants, and 

 leaves the balance for some future meal or some other guest. 



If any soil is naturally deficient in any of the ash constituents, or has been 

 impoverished b}^ excessive cropping, the restoration of these materials in the 

 form of wood ashes appears to be the natural and safe process because they 

 contain all the minerals of vegetable growth. 



KINDS OF ASHES AND THEIR VALUE. 



Hard-wood ashes were taken from my kitchen stove, the fuel being a mix- 

 ture of beech and hard-maple. Small fragments of charcoal were scattered 

 through the ashes and a little sand from dirt adhering to the wood. Ninety- 

 three per cent was soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid, the potash constituted 

 12:^ per cent., and phosphoric acid 6 per cent. One hundred pounds are 

 worth $1.00. 



I have just received a letter from a very intelligent fruit grower in which 

 he says : " I can get pure, dry, hard-wood ashes at $3.20 per ton here — and 

 the same mixed with fish offal, half and half, at 15.00 per ton. "Which is the 

 best for pears, apples, grapes and berries, ' Fine Raw Bone ' at $38 or the 

 pure ashes, or ashes and fish offal? " 



My answer is, " Whatever you neglect to buy, do not fail to buy all the 

 hard-wood ashes your means will allow or your land needs when you can get 

 them for $3.20 a ton. If a man offers to sell you gold for the price of silver, 

 buy the gold and sett it not! " 



Leached ashes were taken from an ashery in Lansing, the leaching having 

 been carried as far as was profitable. Eighty-nine per cent, soluble in acid. 

 The potash was 1.6 per cent, and phosphoric acid 6.8 per cent. Value of 

 100 pounds, 52 cents. 



If leached ashes are of enough value to be bought in car lots in Michigan 

 and carried by rail to Buffalo to make commercial manures for Michigan 

 farmers, then they are valuable enough to be used as manure at home, where 

 they cost little or nothing, and the expense of double transportation is saved. 



Soft-wood ashes were obtained from the ash-pit of the furnace of a planing 

 mill in Lansing, being the ashes from planings of pine, hemlock, fir and 

 basswood lumber, with some soft-coal ash mixed in. It represents the ash 

 from saw mill and planing mill furnaces. Fifty per cent, of the ash was 

 soluble in acid, and so much soluble silica was in the ash that, when treated 

 with acid, it formed a jelly-like mass of precipitated silica ; the ash contained 

 12 per cent, potash and 4 per cent, phosphoric acid. One hundred pounds 

 are worth 84 cents. 



Corn-cob ashes were obtained by burning cobs in the open air. Seventy 

 per cent, soluble in acid; the potash is 45 per cent., and phosphoric acid 4|- 

 per cent. 



Value of 100 pounds, $2,50. 



Tannery ash was obtained from the furnace of a tannery in Lansing, 

 where spent tan and some soft coal were used for fuel. In gathering the 

 specimen an effort was made to exclude the coal-ash as far as possible. Forty- 

 five per cent, of the ash was soluble in acid; the potash was 2^ per cent., 

 and phosphoric acid 1.2 per cent. The prolonged steeping of the tan-bark 

 appears to have extracted some of the potash and phosphoric acid. 



Value of 100 pounds, 22^ cents. 



Soft coal ash was obtained from the furnace in the Laboratory, where bitu- 



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