86 [Senate 



or the floriculturist, soot is an excellent manurej but care must be ta- 

 ken not to use it too freely, as we have known tender garden plants 

 at once destroyed by too liberal applications of it, particularly in a 

 dry state. Mixed with water, in the proportion of six quarts of soot 

 to one hogshead of water, it has been found a most efficacious liquid 

 for watering plants, particularly those grown in green houses. 



Ashes, leached or otherwise, are of great value as a fertilizer, es- 

 pecially when used on soils that are sandy or light. Unleached, the 

 potash contained goes to form silicate of potash, and gives the 

 supply of silex necessary lor the stems of the grasses or corn; 

 and leached, although the potash is the greater part of it separated, 

 the remaining phosphates of lime and magnesia go far to restoring to 

 the fields on which such ashes are strewn, the necessary matters of 

 which previous cropping has deprived them. 100 parts of the ashes of 

 the wheat grain contain 32 parts of soluble, and 44 parts of insoluble 

 phosphates, in all 76 parts. The value of ashes abounding in the re- 

 quired phosphates, when used on grain lands, may be seen at once, 

 as well as the folly of those farmers who waste or sell the ashes pro- 

 duced in their dwellings. 



There is no substance, containing no animal or vegetable matter, 

 which exercises a more powerful or beneficial effect than lime, in 

 some one or all of its forms of carbonate, phosphate and sul- 

 "^^' phate. In the common form in which it is found, that of a car- 

 bonate, it acts in two ways, mechanically and chemically. Being 

 less porous than sand, and more so than clay, its mixture improves 

 soils in which either of these prevail; while as an alkaline earth, it 

 acts chemically on such animal or vegetable matters as may exist in 

 the soil. Lime develops its chemical action most fully when in its 

 caustic state, or when by burning, the carbonic acid has been expell- 

 ed, and the lime rendered what is termed quicklime. In this state, 

 it dissolves such organic matter as may exist in soils, and prepares it 

 for the food of plants. Humus frequently exists in the soil in a so- 

 lid and insoluble state; lime applied to this, renders it soluble in wa- 

 ter, in which form it may be taken up by the roots of plants. A vast 

 deal of needless controversy has been carried on respecting the value 

 of lime as a manure, or the quantity which should be used per acre. 

 By some, it has been extolled as the very highest on the list of effec- 

 tive manures; while others have decried it as of no use whatever; and 

 both have appealed to experiments as establishing their positions. A 



