418 STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



deficient in vegetable matter, the straw may be of great value when plowed under, 

 by the large increase of vegetable mould formed by tlie decaj' of the straw. Jn sandy 

 and gravelly soils the organic matter of the soil is soon exhausted, unless renewed 

 by plowing up green swaid or turning under long maimre, straw, corn-stalks, etc. 

 By the decay of such materials under the soil we promote the decomposition of min- 

 eral substances in the soil, as well as increase the vegetable mould. 



WOOD ASHES. 



The ashe? of difTerent species of wood have a general resemblance in composition, 

 yet they difler appreciably from each other. The ash is the mineral element of any 

 vegetal)le structure, and without the ash rhe vegetable could not have been formed. 

 The ash is an indispensable element of plant-groicth. Some of the elements of ashes are 

 found in abundance in most soils, while others are often found in too small amount 

 to produce full crops. This is often true in the case of soils which have been cropped 

 for a long time. 



The most valuable substances in the ash of plants are potash, phosphoric acid, lime, 

 magnesia, sulphuric acid, etc. If we take the ashes of body wood of the beech as a 

 fair representative of wood ashes, the German chemist Wolff states that they contain 

 IG per cent of potash; a bushel (00 pounds) of such ashes would contain 9.6 pounds 

 of potash which at 4^ cents a pound would come to more than 40 cents, to say nothing 

 of the 33 pounds of lime, G pounds of magnesia, 3 pounds of phosphoric acid, etc., 

 etc., found in the bushel of ashes. When we reflect that a bushel of ashes represents 

 the mineral matter of 2 to 4 tons of vegetable matter, we see how valuable they 

 must be in sustaining vegetable growth unless the plant finds an abundance of such 

 mineral matter in the soil in an available form. 



I single out potash from the ash materials because it constitutes so large a part of 

 the ash of many of our most valuable plants, because the supply is so soon exhausted 

 in some soils, and because it is indispensable for plant growth. In our grasses, pot- 

 ash makes up from 25 to 40 per cent, of the ash; in clovers, and peas, from 30 to 46 

 per cent., and in root crops, potatoes, beets, turnips, etc., from 36 to 65 per cent. 



All of those crops will be benefited by wood ashes unless the soil already contains 

 all the potash the plant requires. The grain crops are not equally benefited by a dose 

 of wood ashes because the potasii is found in smaller amount in their ash. 



If farmers will trj' the experiment of dressing their clover meadows with wood 

 ashes, or will apply it to their turnips and rutabagas, they will not hereafter sell 

 their ashes for six pence a bushel and take watered soft soap for their pay. If they 

 persist in selling off this floating capital of their soil, they will be clothed in sack- 

 cloth and ashes while their farms will go naked. Better clothe j'our fiehis in ashes 

 and use your sack-cloth to bag your crops. 



Aguicultukal Collkge, } 

 February 25, 1879, J" 



R. C. KEDZIE. 



SCIENCE AND THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS IN EDUCATION. 



BY PROF. GEO. T. FAIRCHILD. 

 [Deliverd at Charlotte .imt Flint Institutes.! 



The subject of education is no longer new ; and yet it can never be old. The 

 grand problem of civilization in all its intricacies of human weal reduces at 

 last to the problem of education. What can be done for a community, the 

 nation or the race, is limited by the capacity of its individual members; and 

 this capacity is the direct result of education. The growth of all the ages 

 past is to our advantage, only as our training fits us to accept its results and 

 push forward. 



Is it strange then that such a universal problem should have to be solved 



