330 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



A8HEB AGAINST PLASTER. 



Many farmers -will expend money freely for 

 plaster, and consider it a profitable investment, 

 but at the same time thrcv or give away their 

 wood ashes ! At least, such has been the case. 

 This is poor economy. While we regard plaster 

 as a valuable article, we, at the same time, rank 

 wood ashes much higher in the scale of fertili- 

 zers. It is true that no very accurate experi- 

 ments have as yet been made to ascertain pre- 

 cisely the specific value of plaster and ashes ; yet 

 every one who has applied them to his soil and 

 gromng crops must have seen enough to con- 

 vince him that both are serviceable, and especial- 

 ly that ashes should always be collected and pre- 

 served with care. In the ^'Buckeye Floivhoy," 

 some years since, a writer apparently desirous of 

 placing this subject in its proper light, but with 

 somewhat less minuteness of detail than is per- 

 haps requisite to the consummation of such an 

 undertaking, details a single experiment insti- 

 tuted by himself as follows : 



"I took three rows in a small piece of corn by 

 the side of my garden, and put a handful of ashes 

 on each hill of one row, a teaspoonful of plaster 

 on each hill of another, and the third, left with- 

 out putting on any of either. I cultivated them 

 all alike, hoeing them twice. During the season 

 some pigs got in and rooted up one end of the 

 rows, leaving but about five rods of each that 

 came to maturity. In the fall I husked the rows, 

 as far as they had not been injured, and weighed 

 the ears of each : 



Weight of the ashed row 49,^ lbs. 



Weight of the plastered row 48^ " 



Weight of the row which was neither ashed nor 



plaatered 41 J lbs. 



The ground was green-sward, turned over in 

 the spring, the soil clay, inclined to loam." 



We present the following analysis of the ashes 

 of the sapwood of white oak, (Quercusalba.) 



Potash 13.41 



Soda O.f.2 



Sodium 2.78 



Chlorine 4.24 



Sulphuric acid 0.12 



Phosphate of Peroxide of Iron, ) 



Pliosphate of Lime, > 82.2-5 



PhosphnUj of Magnesia, J 



Carbonic Acid S 95 



Lime 30.8a 



Silica 21 



Magnesia 0.36 



Soluble Silica O.SO 



Organic matten 5.70 



Silica 9.5C0 



Alkaline and earthy Phosphates 35.500 



Lime 0.160 



Magnesia 2.410 



Potash 23.920 



Soda 22 590 



Chlorine 0.405 



Sulphuric Acid 4.385 



Organic matter 0.367 



99.2SJ7 



Analysis of the ai?hes of the leaves : 



Silica 53.550 



Earthy Phosphates 19.250 



Lime : 6.092 



Magnesia 1.2-50 



Potash 12.762 



Soda 8.512 



Chlorine 9.762 



Sulphuric Acid ' 4.185 



Analysis of the ashes of the cob ; 



115.363 



Silica ^ • 13 600 



Earthy Phosphates 23.924 



Lime 0.-300 



Masnesia 0.900 



Potash 35.802 



So<la 5.914 



Chlorine 0.132 



Sulphuric Acid 0..345 



Organic matter. 2.314 



Carbonic Acid 6.134 



89.365 



The reader will not fail to observe how largely 

 those elements prevail which are the most im- 

 portant to nearly all plants, such as the earthy 

 phosphates, the potash, soda, and silica, or sand. 

 He will observe, too, that they are far from be- 

 ing insignificant even in the coal ashes. If this 

 analysis is correct — and we have no reason to 

 doubt it — coal ashes ought to be more generally 

 preserved and used as a fertilizer. 



The ashes of all wood are composed very near- 

 ly of the same materials, and so far as effects up- 

 on vegetation are concerned, it is of very little 

 consequence whether they are from oak, elm, 

 maple, or any other variety. Ashes from soft 

 wood are said to be less valuable ; but we have 

 high authority that the ashes of the hardest oak 

 and the softest pine vary but a trifle in the ma- 

 terials_which compose them. 



100.19 



M<iny analyses have been made of the corn 

 crop, and the following, embracing the ashes of 

 the kernel, leaves and cob, we give, in order bet- 

 ter to enable the reader to understand ivhy ashes 

 applied to this vegetable, as a manure, must ne- 

 cessarily be productive of beneficial effects. 



Analysis of the ash of the kernel of white flint 

 corn, "grown on a sandy soil, and manured in 

 part with coal ashes." 



jpor the New England Farmer. 

 THE PIONEEH FABMBKS' CLUB. 



Mr. Editor: — Some little time since, as we 

 were about taking measures to institute a Farm- 

 ers' Club, I sent a request that you would offer 

 some suggestions in regard to its formation. 

 You very kindly complied by an article just suit- 

 ed to our peculiar necessities. If the result of 

 our effort will be of any interest to you and any 

 encouragement to others to form similar associ- 

 ations, I will briefly describe our success, hoping 

 that it may not exclude more important matter 

 from the columns of that weekly visitor, which, 

 to use the words of a grey-headed neighbor of 

 mine, "tells more about farming every week than 

 we ever knew." 



Having completed such an organization as our 

 circumstances required, our President visited Mr. 

 Secretary Flint, and obtained a package of books 

 which laid the foundation for a valuable library. 



