461 
COAL ASHES AS A FERTILIZER. 
A series of experiments has been in progress at the Museum of Natural His- 
tory, Paris, during the past season, under the eye of Professor Naudin, to test 
‘practically the value of coal ashes as a manure, the results of which seem to 
confirm the opinion that for such purpose.coal ashes are worthless, if not actually 
injurious to and destructive of plant life. The first experiment was with hari- 
cot beans planted in three pots, one of which was filled with coal ashes, another 
with sandy heath-earth of middling quality, and a third with a mixture of heath- 
soil and coal ashes in the proportion of three parts of heath-soil and one of coal ashes, 
three beans being planted in each pot and all of which were sunk in a plot bed 
and given the same attention. All the beans germinated at the same time, but 
those in the pure coal ashes had more difficulty in vegetating and developing 
their first leaves, and from the first were sensibly behind those in the other pots, 
and soon one of them turned yellow and perished. The plants in the heath-soil pro- 
duced eleven beans, those in the mixed earth seven, while those in the pure coal 
ashes made a sorry figure. Their stems did not exceed four and three-fourths 
inches in height, and one of them was nothing more than a staddle without 
leaves while the other still preserved their yellow leaves ; on each of their stems 
were three or four flower buds which fell off without opening. Like experiments 
followed with watermelon seeds, maize, varieties of grasses, &c., with similar 
results. he last experiment was with the haricot beans again. ‘Two large 
pots were filled, one with good free earth, the other with equal parts of the 
earth and coal ashes, and three beans planted in each. Another bean was planted 
in the open ground of the ridges where the pots were sunk. All the beans germ- 
inated, but the plants in the pot containing the coal ashes were weaker than the 
others. ‘Those in the pot of pure earth became relatively very fine. On the 
28th of September, though stili green and full of leaf, almost all the pods had 
reached their normal development and it was easy to reckon their grains. The 
plants were cut off at the level of the neck and put upon the scales. The three 
plants grown in the mixture of earth and coal ashes weighed together 78 grams, 
or an average of 17? dwts., and bore 8 pods containing 20 developed grains. 
The three plants in the pot of earth alone weighed 320 grams, or an average 
of 3 ounces 8} dwts. each, and bore 20 matured pods, (besides 4 ur 5 small, young 
pods) containing 59 grains; being more than triple the product of the three 
plants raised iu the mixture of earth and coal ashes. The plant from the single 
bean planted in the open ground weighed 243 grams, (7 oz. 16 dwts.) and 
bore 15 fine pods, contaning 42 beans. Professor Naudin concludes from these 
experiments that for any of the plants tested coal ashes have been neither a 
manure nor even an earth of the most infertile quality. 
AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF AUSTRALIA. 
The land alienated from the crown during the year 1867 amounted to 144,021 
acres, bringing up the total to 3,568,724, giving an average of nearly 21 acres 
to each man, woman, and child of the population. The enclosed land amounts 
to 4,712,276 acres, being an advance of 173,187 acres upon the previous year. 
The wheat crop of the year, through red rust, was reduced to an average of 43 
bushels per acre, or 93 bushels less than the preceding year, and all other 
cereals showed a comparative decline in average product. ‘The acreage in wheat 
was 20 per cént. greater in 1867 than in 1866, and monopolized 68 acres out of 
every 100 acres under cultivation, yet the crop proved little more than a nomi- 
nal improvement upon that of 1858—’59 when the area sown was two-thirds less. 
