FOURTEENTH CHAPTER. 



YALUE OF OTHER DOMESTIC MANURES. 



<(T HAVE an opportunity to buy unleached wood 



ashes at ten cents per bushel. Will it pay m^ 



to draw it two or three miles for use as a f ertilizer?"^ 



That is a sample of the many letters received 



annually by editors and publishers of 

 Wood Ashes agricultural journals. It shows that 



the great value of wood ashes as a fer- 

 tilizer is not yet generally recognized. Like farm- 

 yard manure, poultry droppings, or other manurial 

 substances, different samples of wood ashes vary 

 very greatly in the percentage of their manurial 

 constituents, and consequently in their value. A 

 fair average sample of home-made ashes, made from 

 hickory, beech, maple and hard oak, etc., contains 

 about seven per cent of potash and two per cent of 

 phosphoric acid, and at current retail prices of plant 

 foods, is worth as follows: 



7 pounds potash @ 5^ cents, - - 38i cents. 



2 " phosphoric acid @, 8 cents, - - 16 cents. 



Total, per 100 pounds, - - 54^ cents. 



Or $10.90 per ton. Potash (which element repre- 

 sents the chief value of ashes) exists here in a 



