ALKALIS . . . SALT ASHES LIME. 109 . 



acres of arable upland, if I could buy them, delivered, 

 at twenty-five cents per bushel ; but they are not to 

 be had. I doubt that there are a hundred acres of 

 warm, dry, gravelly or sandy soil east of the Alle- 

 ghanies that would not amply reward a similar ap- 

 plication. But Ashes in quantity are unattainable, 

 since no good farmer sells them, and Coal is the chief 

 fuel of cities and villages. The Marls of New-Jersey 

 I judge fully equal in average value to Ashes which 

 have been nearly deprived of their potash by leach- 

 ing, but not quite half equal, bushel for bushel, to 

 wwleached Ashes. I judge that average Marl is 

 worth 10 cents per bushel where Ashes may be had 

 for 25. But Marl is found only in a few localities, 

 and a material worth but 10 cents per bushel will 

 not bear transportation beyond 40 mile^ by wagon or 

 200 by water. Salt is only found or made at a few 

 points, and is too dear for general use as a fertilizer. 

 Where the refuse product of Salt- Works can be 

 cheaply bought, good farmers will eagerly compete 

 for it, if their lands at aH resemble mine. I judge 

 the tun of Potash I ordered fifteen years ago 

 from Syracuse, paying $50 and transportation, was 

 the cheapest fertilizer I ever bought. It was so im- 

 pregnated with Salt (from the boiling over of the 

 salt-kettles into the ashes) as to be worthless for other 

 than agricultural purposes; but I mixed it with a 

 large pile of Muck that I had recently dug, and, six 

 or eight months thereafter, applied the product to a 

 very poor 5 gravelly hill-side which I had just broken 



