1846.] Orange County Manures. 39 



Now, if it were cut up and mixed with a pile of peat, the whole 

 mass would be brought into a state of decomposition, fitting it to 

 become the food of a large crop. 



The soap-maker will pay a shilling a bushel for ashes. After 

 he has leached from it a large proportion of its potash, the Long 

 Island farmer will send to the door of the soap-maker, often as far 

 as 160 miles, and pay for the leached, the same sum originally 

 paid for the unleached ashes. Now, if it is worth a shilling per 

 bushel, besides the transportation, to him, after all its soluble pot- 

 ash is extracted, are our farmers who make the ashes and sell it 

 to soap-manufacturers paid for it ? Would it not be worth more 

 than the shilling to them to put on their land? We have no doubt 

 this is true in reference to any of the long-cultivated lands in this 

 country, setting aside the particular necessity for particular soils. 

 But here we wish only to mention it as of use to decompose peat, 

 and prepare it for manure. One cart-load of ashes mixed with 

 ten of peat, and turned over a few times before it is applied, 

 would make a mass of manure nearly or quite equal to as much 

 of the best farm-yard manure, and more profitable to any farmer 

 than to sell his ashes for cash at a shilling per bushel. 



The same use can be made of lime. It is a powerful converter 

 of insoluble vegetable matter into soluble. We have seen some- 

 where a recipe like this: — dissolve one bushel of salt, and make 

 it a paste with a cask of lime. After it has stood a few days, add 

 it to three cords of peat. Turn the mass two or three times be- 

 fore using. 



Under this head may also be included those large accumulations 

 of vegetable and mineral matter in the bottom of ponds of stand- 

 ing water. In this matter we have a powerful manure, which is 

 too generally neglected. Sufficient probably collects in a large 

 mill-pond, to pay for drawing off the water and cleaning it out 

 every year. It consists not only of the vegetable matter which is 

 accidentally transported thither, but of the wash of soluble and 

 insoluble substances from the hill-sides and slopes of ground 

 throughout the whole district of country through which the 

 streams pass which supply the pond. Here they accumulate, and 



