120 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



close of the winter, (in February,) I soweil forty bushels of pow- 

 dered charcoal, (or dust, as we call it,) to the acre on the snow. 

 The grass came up early this spring, and last harvest I cut three 

 tons to the acre of handsome and nutricious hay as can be found 

 in the country. Portions of the timothy was four feet high by 

 measurement, and the heads averaged in the highest portions of it 

 eight inches in length. It was cut just after the blossom had 

 covered about two-thirds of the head, and with care the whole was 

 cut and housed without loosing a pound by rotting or bleaching, 

 notwithstanding the continued rains w^e had last harvest. 



Your own investigations and experiments in scientific agricul- 

 ture, will I presume readily suggest the viodus operandi of the 

 plaster, ashes and charcoal ; but not so with myself. I am still 

 unsatisfied wuth any solution from books, analogy or practice, but 

 lean more in favor of the potash of the ashes than any thing else 

 — could the charcoal under the circumstances act other than me- 

 chanically '? Will you favor me with a scientific (practical) solu- 

 tion of my experiment, which I consider not of so much import- 

 ance " per 5f," as per circumstances of soil, &c. 

 Very truly your friend, 



RoBT. C. RANK^^^ 



Our correspondent has not given the full account of his experi- 

 ment and the condition of his land w^hich we wish ; but there is but 

 little mystery as it appears to us in the fine crop of hay which was 

 obtained after such a plentiful application of gypsum, ashes and 

 charcoal. The peculiarity in this experiment consists in the appli- 

 cation of the charcoal to the snow which then covered the ground. 

 In thus applying it it is very possible that some advantage is 

 gained. Snow, especially fresh fallen snow, is rich in ammonia, 

 'and it seems to us highly probable that charcoal may absorb ' 

 ammonia freely and store it up for the use of the vegetal): 

 Spent ashes too, it is well known, are well adapted to grass ;i:ii! 

 grain whose straw yields a large amount of silica. 



ROAD WASTES. 



Intersected as our country is with roads and channels of coni- 

 municalion, they furnish a great amount of drained surface whicli 



