FOR MEADOW AND PASTURE LANDS. 151 



We come now to the use of ashes as a top dressing. Of 

 this we may speak with more confidence. For while experi- 

 ments with lime have not invariably proved successful, owing, 

 probably, to the soils designed to be benefitted, we know of 

 no instances in which the application of ashes has not fully re- 

 paid the exnense. If farmers would bear in mind that ashes 

 contain all the elements which assist the growth of plants, they 

 would be unwilling to part with a substance which they might 

 turn to such profit. If the quantity is small, let it be husban- 

 ded with the greater care, instead of being sold, with the idea 

 that so few can do no good. One substantial farmer says, " I 

 am now, more than ever, fully persuaded of the value of ashes 

 as a manure. Nothing in the Vv^hole catalogue of manures, 

 compares with them on my land. The soil was a thin clayey 

 loam, and where the ashes were sown there was a crop of ex- 

 cellent clover where for years the land had been almost unpro- 

 ductive." 



Grasses are more benefitted by ashes than other crops, since 

 they require a greater amount of the salts which ashes contain. 

 For all permanent mowing lands, especially on the lighter soils, 

 ashes are among the cheapest of manures. In parts of Flan- 

 ders and Belgiuni, countries in which the science of Agricul- 

 ture has been carried to a higher perfection than in any other 

 part of Europe, the great loss of vegetable matters from the 

 soil is constantly restored by ashes or bones, together with oth- 

 er manures to be mentioned hereafter. Indeed almost all agri- 

 culturists, both in Europe and America, have attached very 

 great importance to the use of ashes. In some parts of Germa- 

 ny they are held in so high esteem that they are transported 

 to a distance of eighteen or twenty miles, to be used as a top 

 dressing. According to Prof. Liebig, with every one hundred 

 and ten pounds of leached ashes of the common beech tree, 

 spread upon the soil, we furnish as much phosphate as five 

 hundred and seven pounds of the richest manures could yield. 

 Now phospates are highly useful to all kinds of soil. 



There can be no doubt that the process of leaching takes 

 from the ashes a part of their fertilizing properties. For many 

 usesj this is no objection. Especially is this the case near the 



