1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



117 



acquire the requisite skill for proper management. 

 By a few this has been acquired by patient, perse- 

 vering effort, sufficient, at least, to succeed for 

 many years, without any aid but what was gained 

 by experience. It is now quite different. The in- 

 experienced can, if they choose, take the shorter 

 route, by appropriating to their own use the ex- 

 perience of others, found in the numerous trea- 

 tises on the subject. M. Quinby, 



Author of Mysteries'of Bee-Keeping Explained. 



St. Jolinsville, N. Y., 1858. 



LEACHED ASHES FOR MANURE. 



We are fully aware how much public opinion 

 has changed with regard to the value of leached 

 ashes as a manure, but at the same time have rea- 

 son to believe that large quantities of it are suf- 

 fered to be wasted, and that, even within the cir- 

 cle of our intelligent readers, there are some 

 cultivators who do not properly appreciate it yet. 

 We propose, therefore, to place before the read- 

 er the opinions and expei'iments of some others, 

 to give force to what we have often stated our- 

 selves in regard to the value of this article. 



Mr. CoLMAN, in his valuable "Report on the 

 Agriculture of Massachusetts," in some observa- 

 tions relative to the value and efficacy of the 

 manures used by the farmers of this State, says : 

 "ashes, leached or crude, have been applied by 

 difierent individuals with various success. A far- 

 mer of high authority in Newbury states — 'I 

 think leached ashes very valuable to spread on 

 grass land ; likewise for onions and grain. I use 

 twenty or thirty cart loads a year, and gave this 

 season $3 per load of fifty bushels.' Another re- 

 spectable farmer says 'he deems theij:i of no use 

 unless applied in conjunction with other manure, 

 and then of great efficacy. In their application 

 upon a rich loam to corn, both in the hill and 

 spread round the hill at the first hoeing, I have 

 seen no beneficial result from them.' " 



The question naturally arises here, whether, if 

 the corn had been planted on a. poor loam, or on 

 a poor gravelly soil, and part of the crop had been 

 treated with ashes, and a part not, there would 

 not have been a marked difference between the 

 two ? But the ashes was applied on a ricli loam 

 that would have brought a good crop alone. That 

 is not the best mode of testing special manures. 



Judge BUEL, of Albany, a man whose pen 

 cast light upon many subjects, and whom we can- 

 not accuse of having given currency to a single 

 sophism, in the long coui'se of his most ax'duous 

 and philanthropic efforts to ameliorate the condi- 

 tion of American agriculture, says : — "leached 

 ashes, or soap-boiler's waste, which contains 

 always a quantity of lime, I have used with 

 advantage for wheat ;" and another distinguished 

 writer, whose labors have, ILke those of the in 

 dij-idual first named, been the means of'arous 



ing and directing inquiry on many important 

 topics, remarks: — "Leached ashes I have al- 

 ways found to be a most genial and efficient ma- 

 nure. As a top-dressing for grass lands — ap- 

 plied at the rate of twenty -five or thirty hiishels 

 per acre, according to circumstances, they are un- 

 surpassed. They correct acidity, and sweeten the 

 soil, and have a powerful effect' in warming and 

 imbuing it with energy and life. I consider them 

 an economical and desirable manure at seventeen 

 cents a bushel, even where I am compelled to 

 draw them from three to eight miles." 



We have often witnessed the good effects 

 which Judge Buel describes, and not only on 

 grass lands, by which we suppose he means mow- 

 ing lands, — but on pastures which had become 

 greatly impoverished, and even partially covered 

 with moss. 



In the Farmer's Cabinet an intelligent corres- 

 pondent observes : — "Of all things to make grass 

 grow, ashes beat ; this you may depend upon, 

 for I have tried it often, and it has never failed 

 yet. Collect as much of it as you can, the more 

 the better, and spread it over your grounds, and 

 see if lam not correct in my assertions." 



A writer in the Farmer's Journal, observes : — 

 "I do not see wood ashes very often spoken of as 

 a manure, in our agricultural papers. I am in- 

 clined to think that they are not valued so high- 

 ly as they deserve. I have had a pretty favora- 

 ble opportunity for observing their effects. In 

 my boyhood, a soap-boiling establishment was 

 §et up in the neighborhood in which my father 

 lived, in which large quantities of wood ashes 

 were used. The man who carried it on had a 

 farm of about a hundred acres, which, under a 

 faulty system of management, had got very much 

 run out, and the owner was getting every year 

 more and moi*e in debt. After he commenced 

 soap-boiling, there being little demand for his 

 leached ashes, he applied them liberally to his 

 land, and soon, from being one of the poorest, his 

 farm became decidedly the most productive in 

 the town. His crops repeatedly obtained the pre- 

 miums at the county cattle shows. I think I 

 never knew so great a change produced on a 

 farm in so short a time. It was a subject of gen- 

 eral and admiring observation. By the increased 

 productiveness of ^.is farm, added to the profits 

 of his soap-boiling he soon freed himself from 

 his pecuniary embar"assments, and at his death 

 he left to his children not only a farm free from 

 all incumbrances, and in a high state of cultiva- 

 tion, but also considerable other property which 

 he had accumulated. The soil of the farm was 

 light, inclining to sandy." 



With these facts before us, and many others 

 which are constantly occurring, it would seem 

 that sufficient evidence has been accumulated to 



