EXPEEIMENT STATION. 55 



Analyses. 



Sample 494 was analyzed for private use, and the Station has 

 no informatioii'as to cost, etc. 



Both 494 and 507 have a composition more nearly like that 

 of leached ashes than anything of common occurrence with which 

 they can be compared. From leached ashes they differ in con- 

 taining little or no moisture, and about 20 per cent, moi-e lime. 

 They agree more closely with leached ashes in the proportion of 

 alkalies, magnesia and phosphoric acid present, although their 

 potash is more and their phosphoric acid less than leached ashes 

 commonly contain. Of the lime, in sample 507, about 31 per 

 cent, exists united to the carbonic acid, making 56 per cent, of 

 carbonate of lime ; about 14 per cent, is united to water, forming 

 19 per cent, of slacked lime ; and the remaining 8 per cent, is 

 present as quick-lime. The sample contains, therefore, about 83 

 per cent, of lime and its carbonate and hydrate. These ashes 

 are, in fact, unleached wood ashes mixed witli four to six times 

 their weight of partly slacked and carbonated lime. They must 

 be used with caution, but if properly applied will no doubt prove 

 a valuable fertilizer on some soils. 



Sample 542 was offered at Thompsonville as "Canada ashes." In 

 it the 7 per cent, of carbonic acid is united to 9 per cent, (in round 

 numbers) of lime, making about 16 per cent, of carbonate of lime. 

 The combined water is united to about 42 per cent, of the lime, 

 making 55 per cent, of hydrate of lime (slacked lime) and the 

 remainder of the lime — 16 per cent. — exists as quick-lime. Ac- 

 cordingly the sample contains 87 per cent, of lime and its carbon- 

 ate and hydrate. It contains also 9 per cent, of sand, char, oxide 

 of iron and moisture, leaving 2.7 per cent, of magnesia, alkalies, 

 phosphoric acid and suljihuric acid. 



These "ashes fi"om factories in Canada" are, in fact, lime, so 

 slightly admixed with wood ashes, as not to differ essentially from 

 oyster-shell lime in composition or value whether commercial or 

 agricultural. The presence of so much caustic and slacked lime 

 renders this sample very unlike ashes in its action on the soil. 

 From their presence in such large quantity this material might 

 occasion serious loss if applied to growing crops or to land ready 

 to i^lant. The name is misleading and fraudulent, and evidentl}'^ 

 we have a material which will scarcely pay the farmers of Con- 

 necticut to transport from the " factories in Canada," or rather 

 from Boston, where it is believed to have originated. 



