104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



hundred and fifty pounds to the acre too much for potatoes. 

 It acted like an acid in the hill, and made the skins rough. 

 I have reduced it down to fifty pounds, and it increased the 

 crop from one hundred to two hundred or three hundred per 

 cent. 



Dr. Nichols. The matter of dollars and cents, of course, 

 overrides everything else. We farm, not for pleasure, but profit. 

 In addition to sources of supply, we want to find the cheapest 

 sources. I suppose the gentleman pays 7^ cents a pound for 

 his potash. Wood ashes would be cheaper, if he paid thirty- 

 five cents a bushel. 



Mr. Bufpinton. . I cannot get them for less than forty or 

 forty-five cents a bushel, with a great deal of coal ashes mixed 

 with them. 



Dr. Nichols. I should hope no one would sell wood ashes 

 for less than forty cents, because, from a bushel of wood ashes, 

 you get four pounds of potash, and then you have some soda, 

 a considerable amount of soluble silica, and a very considerable 

 amount of phosphate of lime. You have the material in a 

 bushel of ashes that really makes its money value as high as 

 forty cents. 



Dr. Durfee. In what way would you manage these ashes, 

 if you had plenty of them ? I have plenty of them, and I 

 should like to know how to use them to the best advantage. 

 I have been buying ground bone and making a compost. The 

 ashes eat up the bone, and I find it makes a most excellent 

 dressing for land, especially for vegetables. 



Dr. Nichols. Well, doctor, you cannot make much improve- 

 ment upon that. You see, in mixing ashes with bone, you get 

 all the essentials of plant-food. You get the gelatine in the 

 bone ; you get nitrogen, potash and soda ; what more can you 

 have ? I have for several years recommended that mixture, 

 and some have told me that it did not succeed very well upon 

 corn ; but I have found that they did not use judgment in its 

 application. They would drop the seed upon the fertilizer, and 

 in that way destroy the germinal principle. A considerable 

 quantity of earth should be put upon the compost before the 

 seed is dropped. I think that the use of half a handful in a 

 hill brings the corn up quickly, and makes a magnificent 

 growth. I consider that it is a very profitable fertilizer to use 



