362 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



made either by culirrary fires, or those which 

 are designed to burn up the wood, where the 

 inhabitants ai*e cleatring the lands. In almost 

 every new settlenient, one of the first attempts, 

 is to erect works for the pot and pearl ash man- 

 ufacture : And there are probably as many 

 works of this kind, as there are settled towns in 

 the state. The business is every where well 

 understood ; and there is no better pot or pearl 

 ashes made in any part of America, than that 

 which is produced in Vermont. It has hitherto 

 taken from four himdred and fifty to four hun- 

 dred and eighty 'bushels of ashes, to make one 

 ton of pot ash. Constant attempts are now 

 made,^ to find out a way of extracting more of 

 the salts from the ashes, than has been hereto- 

 fore done by the common method of bleaching ; 

 and also to extract more salts from the ashes, 

 which have been thrown aside as useless. Flat- 

 tering prospects seem to have attended some 

 chymical experiments of this kind ; and im- 

 provements have been made in the method of 

 constructing the works for the pot ash. But 

 much further improvements are necessary, be- 

 fore these imperfect attempts, can be of any very 

 valuable use to the manufacturer. The quantity 

 of pot and pearl ashes, which is annually made 

 in Vermont, cannot be exactly stated. From 

 the best accounts I could procure, in the year 

 1791, the quantity might be estimated at about 

 one thousand tons : Probably this may be near 

 the truth. But whatever may be the quantity 

 produced at present, it is rapidly increasing ; 

 and probably will for several years, bear some 

 proportion to the increase of the inhabitants. 



