jL.eport of Ike Agricultural Committee, 25. 



* examining a soil, we can say at once whether it is fertile 

 » in regard to any plants, fhe ashes of which have been ex- 

 » amined. Thirdly, when we know the defects of a soil, 

 » the deficient matters may be easily obtained, and added 

 » to it, unmixed with such as are not required. Fourthly, 

 » thf straw, leaves, &c., of any plant must be the best 

 » manure for that plant, since every vegetable extracts 

 » from the soil such matters alone as are essential to it. 

 » This important principle has been amply verified by the 

 » success attending the use of wheat straw, or its ashes, as 

 » manure for wheat, and of the clippings of the vines, as 

 » manure for the vineyard. When these are used, no other 

 .» manure is required. Fifthly, in the Rotation of Crops, 

 » those should be made to follow which require different 

 » minerals; or a crop which extracts little, or no, mineral 

 » matter, such as peas, should come after one which ex- 

 » hausts the soil of its phosphates and potash. » — Turner's 

 Chemistry, 7th Ed : p. 1210. 



Thus the remark, made long since by Sir John Laforey, 

 as to Cane trash being «the richest manurea for the Cane, 

 appears clearly established by the result of modern scienti- 

 fic research and experience: and the question of applying 

 all the «bagasse» ana dry leaves, or straw, of the Cane as 

 manure, — either in a proper state of decomposition, or iu 

 that of ashes, by burning them on the field, — and of seek- 

 ing some other fuel for manufacturing purposes, becomes 

 worthy of all the attention that scientific men have lately 

 directed to the subject. Thisisoneof the points which renders 

 apparatus for the Manufacture of Sugar with a small con- 

 sumption of fuel, so great a desideratum. 



The study and practicat application of such questions, as 

 yitW as those couoected with the improvement of our Ma- 



