142 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



difference on my crops. I live near tide-water, but the water 

 is not salt there. During the dry season of the year, the 

 water is brackish ; and my land consists of a variety of soils, 

 — some of it is sandy, and some of it has a compact subsoil, 

 and some is porous. 



Question. Do you use other fertilizers with the ashes ? 



Mr. Paul. Yes, sir. I have used a large variety of fer- 

 tilizers. I use, during the same year, upon some crops, possi- 

 bly stable-manure and ashes, guano, bone, phosphates, potash, 

 refuse from the porgy oil-works, and various other materials. 

 I do not use the ashes in combination with other manures, 

 only during the same year. I use manure more freely than 

 many of our farmers do. I put on in the spring a good appli- 

 cation of stable-manure, or manure made at my barn, and it 

 is worked into the ground ; then an application of ashes ; 

 possibly, during the season, an application of fish-guano from 

 the porgy-works, and possibly an application of Peruvian 

 guano, or of the superphosphates, as found in the market. 



The Chairman. Have you ever experimented with 

 leached and unleached ashes without the use of any thing 

 else, so that you know the result was not attributable to some 

 other fertilizer? 



Mr. Paul. No, sir ; but I have used equal quantities of 

 the two materials on my crops without being able to detect 

 any difference in the results. I seldom have a year when I 

 do not use more than one fertilizer on my land. 



The Chairman. There is a point where I think the 

 gentleman, like a great many others, is at fault. We use 

 something else, and we do not know what to attribute the 

 product to. If he did not use any other fertilizer on a given 

 spot but leached ashes, and on another spot used nothing 

 but unleached ashes, then he could tell us something definite 

 as to the result ; but he does not know whether some of 

 tljese results are not attributable to some other manurial 

 agent that he has put in. 



Mr. Paul. I have only inferred, that, if the potash which 

 is leached out in the process of leaching was of value, it 

 should tell on the crop, when there is so much potash put on 

 in the one case, and not so much in the other. 



The Chairman. My explanation would be this, — that he 

 is using the ashes on a soil that does not require potash, and 



