The Canadian Horticulturist. 119 



CANADIAN ASHES FOR CANADIAN FARMS. 



^HE agricultural papers are well supplied with standing adver- 

 tisements of dealers in Canada hardwood ashes, and to us 

 at a distance the question occurs, " Where do all these ashes 

 come from ?" Not from the marts of trade, because the 

 fact that they are ashes indicates a large destruction of the 

 products of the soil of Canada. They must come from the 

 farms of Canada, but one can hardly understand why the 

 Canadian farmers should thus sell for present advantage the fertilizing elements 

 from their soil, which sooner or later they must buy back at a much greater cost. 

 For although the Canada ashes cost the consumer at a distance far more than 

 their percentage of potash is worth, we are told that the price received by the 

 ■Canada farmers for these ashes from collectors is very low. We once bought a 

 car load of these ashes, which analyzed much higher than the samples now offered 

 for sale. They were delivered to me for $15 per ton. With the freight taken 

 -off, the actual price paid to the importer was not over $5 per ton, at which price 

 the actual potash they contained was cheap enough. But if the importers were 

 satisfied to get this price, for how little a sum must the Canada farmer have 

 parted with the fertihty of his soil, for the expense of the collection and storage 

 and importation of these ashes must he ver>- heavy. So I have figured out in 

 my mind, that the Canada farmer got, not over two cents a pound, for the 

 actual potash sold in his ashes, to say nothing of the lime parted with. Now 

 when he finds his cultivated soil getting deficient in potash, as he invariably will, 

 he must buy back that potash at four and a half to five cents per pound. At 

 the same time the purchasers of the Canada ashes, as now sold at a guarantee of 

 five per cent, potash, pay exceedingly dear for the whistle It looks to me like a 

 hard bargain for the farmers on both sides of the line. The farmer on this side 

 can buy his potash in the form of potash salts much cheaper than in the 

 ashes, and the Canadian farmer is parting with his potash for less than half 

 what he or his children must pay to get them back. In selling off these mineral 

 elements of fertility, lime and potash, the farmer sells what he must buy back in 

 some shape. We lose enough of the matters in the crops we sell, which is 

 unavoidable, but when we add to this the sale of the products of combustion, 

 by-products, that should go back to the land, we are burning our candle at both 

 ends, and will reach the point of exhaustion sooner. Canada farmers as we 

 look at it, cannot afford to sell these ashes at the price they are paid for them, 

 and .\merican farmers can buy their potash at vastly cheaper rates. Out of the 

 difference the importers grow rich, while the farmers pay the bill. While we 

 have had good results from the use of these ashes, we have become satisfied that 

 we got the results at a far greater cost, even considering the value of the lime, 

 than we could have gotten the same results by purchasing lime and potash in 



