GAS LIME AND ASHES. 239 



Lime has been condemned by many because of its having 

 been put upon poor soils, so that it had nothing to operate upon. 

 William Bacon says : " Lime is extremely valuable for lands 

 which have acquired too much acidity." It is often used in 

 composting with muck, and may tend to correct the acidity 

 which is frequently found in that article. Lime should never be 

 used with manure, unless the manure is immediately ploughed 

 under. 



IS GAS LIME MANURE ? • 



The testimony of the members of this Board as given at the 

 meeting at Concord, December, 1867, was in favor of the nega- 

 tive. But I am inclined to think that it may have been used 

 improperly. From what I can learn from the statements of 

 individuals, it should be used in small quantities. Mr. Whit- 

 man, of Little Falls, N. Y., in speaking of gas lime at a meeting 

 of the farmers' club at that place, says : " Gas lime can be 

 turned to good account if properly applied. We this year 

 spread 1,000 bushels upon our meadows with good results, we 

 think, paying largely in the increase of crop. At first we did 

 not know how to apply it, and by putting it on too largely the 

 plants were destroyed. Judgment is need in the application of 

 all fertilizers, and especially with a material like gas lime." 



Mr. Horace Russell, a farmer of North Hadley, has used gas 

 lime quite extensively upon his mowing and grain fields, with 

 satisfaction. He has stopped using it because of the expense of 

 getting it, having to freight it some twenty miles by railroad, 

 then carting it five miles in addition, to his home. 



ASHES ARE MANURE. 



They work admirably on some soils. It is a common remark 

 in the Connecticut River Yalley, that " a bushel of ashes will 

 make a bushel of corn." A very good farmer of my acquaint- 

 ance, who likes the idea of raising his corn cheaply, is accus- 

 tomed to raise his corn on turf land, applying a few bushels of 

 ashes in the hill, and succeeds in getting good crops of corn, 

 which he follows the next year with tobacco, manuring bounti- 

 fully, afterwards following with wheat, then with grass. Very 

 good crops of corn are grown on turf land in a fair state of 

 cultivation, with an application of ten or twelve bushels of 



