AGRICULTURE WITH CHEMISTRY, 



being procured from the combustion of any crop pro- 

 duced from an acre of ground. In no instance the quan- 

 tity of alkaline salts obtained will be found to exceed 

 one and a half cwt. unless from cabbages, turnips, and 

 potatoes. No restriction nor nicety need, however, be 

 attended to in the use of alkaline salts, except such as have 

 reference to cost, and the comparative beneficial results 

 from the increased produce of the ground. 



The scarcity and high price of the above saline mat- 

 ters, in addition to a due want of knowledge of the proper 

 state which peat should be in, when these substances 

 are intended to be mixed together, have hitherto pre- 

 cluded the use of alkaline salts for the improvement of 

 the soil. The only substance of a caustic nature, and 

 capable of destroying the organic texture of vegetable 

 bodies, which in some places has been used, is lime, 

 though not in so judicious a manner as to insure at all 

 times, uniformly, good effects from its application, which 

 can never be depended upon, if the proportions of each 

 substance, and the particular state of them, are unattend^ 

 ed to and neglected, as will appear by the following ob- 

 servations. 



When 



