CULTIVATED MOWING-LANDS. 141 



it in the market. Never, in any case, can you force nitrogen 

 into combination with phmts, unless it is first in combination 

 with some other substance, or in the form of ammonia. 



Question. I would like to ask how leached ashes com- 

 pare in value with unleached. 



Dr. Nichols. That question has been so often asked, that 

 it would seem that most of us ought to know sometliing 

 about it. It depends altogether upon the degree of exhaus- 

 tion of the potash. The soap-boiler will give you leached 

 ashes which are worth very much more than some others. 

 There is always a portion of alkali in the ashes. I should 

 think that, ordinarily, leached ashes were worth ten cents 

 per bushel, when dry Canadian ashes, giving five pounds of 

 alkali to the bushel, were worth thirty-four cents. That is 

 an approximate estimate. 



Mr. Paul (of Dighton). In regard to the matter of leached 

 and unleached ashes, all I know is as to the results. I have 

 used for twelve years from five hundred to nine hundred 

 bushels a year ; and during those years I used, probably, from 

 a hundred to three hundred bushels of unleached, the remain- 

 der being leached. A portion of the leached ashes was 

 from soap-boilers, and a portion of them was imported from 

 Canada, said to be hard-wood ashes. I must confess that I 

 made no test or measurements of my crops, which is a very 

 important thing to do; but I observed on my own land and 

 my own crops. I cannot give just the pounds or just the 

 bushels ; but, using them side by side, I came to the conclu- 

 sion, after the experience of years, that, practically, there 

 was but very little difference, on my soil, between the effect 

 of the leached and the unleached ashes. If Mr. Slade is ill 

 the room, I think he will corroborate what I am saying as to 

 the effect of the use of ashes in my section of the country. 

 I heard Dr. Nichols in Fall River answer this same question. 

 I think, although I am not quite sure about it, tha,t he then 

 gave leached ashes rather more value than he does now. I 

 have found very little difference practically; and I have 

 watched very carefully, because I get my living from my 

 farming, and I do not want to use any materials unless I get 

 my money back. I have come to the conclusion that the 

 unleached ashes give about the same result as the leached ; 

 at least, the effect is so nearly the same, that I cannot tell the 



