JVOOD ASHES. 



shows the plans of one of the largest 

 and most experienced firms in the ice 

 trade, which is claimed to embody all 

 of the essential particulars necessary for 

 a perfect ice-house, unless it be deemed 

 desirable to put in a ventilator to carry 

 off the heated air radiating from the 

 roof in midday. In the elevation plan, 

 A is a dry wall, B mortar wall, C outer 

 posts, D inner posts, E sills laid in lime 

 mortar, F partition under roof, G floor 



with hay covering, H spaces for filling 

 between walls, J spaces for filling under 

 roof, K double flooring laid crossways, 

 L ties of hoop or band iron, M natural 

 surface of ground. In the ground plan, 

 doorways are made from top to bottom 

 at any convenient place (the gable ends 

 are best), boarded and filled as the rest 

 of the house after the ice is put in. 

 — Farm and Home. 



WOOD ASHES. 



^rr^HERE is a growing interest in 

 the subject of wood ashes, and 

 their use as a fertilizer. This 

 is largely owing to the fact 

 that long cultivated lands are beginning 

 to show a lack of the fertilizing constitu- 

 ents that are supplied by ashes, and a 

 desire on the part of the tiller of the soil 

 to increase and improve his yields. 

 Large quantities of this valuable fertilizer 

 are annually exported from the Province; 

 and what makes it worse is that they are 

 gathered chiefly from the farms which 

 need them so badly. To supply the 

 growing demand for information, and to 

 gain a more definite knowledge of the 

 fertilizing constituents of wood ashes, 

 we have, during the last year, analyzed 

 the ash of most of the Ontario forest 

 trees, fruit trees and small fruits.* 



The growing plant gathers all its 

 mineral constituents from the soil in 

 which it grows, and these, not being 

 combustible, are left as ash when the 

 plant is burned ; consequently, the ash 

 must contain all the mineral constitu- 

 ents that are essential to growth. These 

 are potash, phosphoric acid, lime, mag- 



*For full reports of this work, see the 

 Report of the Professor of Chemistry, in the 

 Ontario Agricultural College Report for 1896. 

 Some additions will be made in the report 

 for 1897. 



nesia, iron and sulphur. These sub- 

 stances form a very small part of a plant, 

 yet without them no plant could grow 

 and produce seed ; in fact they are in- 

 dispensable to life. Of the six essential 

 plant-food substances named, potash 

 and phosphoric acid are the most im- 

 portant, not only because they are taken 

 up by the plant in large quantities, but 

 also from the fact that our average 

 Ontario farms do not contain them any 

 too abundantly. Wood ashes, there- 

 fore, are usually valued according to the 

 amount of those two constituents which 

 they contain. Although potash and 

 phosphoric acid are the most valuable 

 plant food substances in ashes, ashes 

 also contain large quantities of lime, 

 which is of considerable value to the 

 growing plant. Lime is usually present 

 in the soil in suflScient quantities to 

 supply the wants of growth, yet its 

 application may produce marked results. 

 By acting chemically on certain con- 

 stituents in the soil, plant food, especi- 

 ally potash, is brought into an available 

 form. It neutralizes the free acid of the 

 soil, and thus helps along the process by 

 which vegetable matter is changed to a 

 form in which the plant may make use 

 of its nitrogen. It also tends to im- 



105 



