•288 TTOOD-ASH. 



litmus-paper blue. This operation of mixing can best 

 be performed on the field itself. 



Wood-ash which has been extracted with water, such, 

 for instance, as the residue left in the preparation of 

 potash, possesses for many fields a high value as a ma- 

 nuring agent, not only on account of the potash always 

 present in it, but also of the phosphate of hme and soluble 

 sihcic acid it contains. 



As the upper layers of our corn-fields contain already 

 naturally an excess of potash, in proportion to the other 

 food elements, ash-manuring, when confined to the 

 surface soil, rarely exercises a lasting effect ; but where 

 the ash is carried down to the proper depth, it affords an 

 excellent means of obtaining permanent crops of clover, 

 turnips, or even potatoes. Intelligent manufacturers of 

 beetroot sugar use mth great success the residuary 

 matter fi^om the distillation of their molasses, which con- 

 tains all the potash-salts of the beetroot, for mammng 

 their fields, to restore to them the potash removed in the 

 beetroot-crops. 



