42 



if he was fortunate enough to reach that receptacle for all the filth of the city before it cooled, 

 no disagreeable effusion arose. I informed this person that I could put him in the way of 

 making one of the most valuable manures of this liquid — for when it cooled it formed a 

 thick jelly, and contained of course all the most enriching substances boiled out of the 

 bones. This is accomplished by the addition of pounded charcoal. I have used this com- 

 post to great advantage, and sown broad-cast on meadow lands. It is so devoid of obnoxious 

 smell as to be carried willingly by sloops eighty miles up the Hudson. Charcoal is one 

 of the most wonderful absorbents we have ; as a manure I consider it very valuable. It 

 absorbs from the atmosphere oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia, and while the weather 

 is dry holds all the.se valuable stimulants ; when rain comes it takes in eighty per cent, of 

 water and releases the other gases which are carried down into the earth by the water. When 

 it becomes dry the water is released, and the other gases imbibed. When used around 

 trees, green-house plants, shrubs, grain or grass, it will invariably be found, on taking up the 

 plant, closely adhering to the roots. I have had trees packed in it, and after a passage of 

 eighty days they have been found perfectly green, and in most beautiful order, when others 

 of the same species packed in matting, boxes, etc., have been perfectly dead. I first used 

 it in 1840, and take pride in saying that I was among, if not the first, to make mention of 

 its valuable qualities as a manure in this country. If spread over the compost heap, stable 

 floors, barn yards, etc., it will absorb all the ammonia, prevent the waste of gases exhaling 

 from it, and thus form itself into a very valuable compost. I saved apples packed in it 

 last fall until this fall perfectly. Ashes, as a manure, I have found of great advantage on 

 sandy soils. I have seen land so poor that it would not actually produce eight bushels of 

 corn to the acre made to yield forty-five, merely by the application of ashes, properly 

 applied. On some soils leached is as valuable as unleached. In fact there is scarcely a 

 manure more valuable than ashes in a sandy soil, except perhaps marly clay. It makes a 

 soil hold moisture, which is a great desideratum on a sandy soil. You may have noticed 

 that it is much used on Long Island and in Jersey on light sandy soils, to very great 

 advantage. It stimulates growth, like plaster when first used on land. If sown broad-cast on 

 land, in grass a difference in growth will be almost immediately perceptible, and the yield in 

 hay will pay the whole expense of ashing, say forty bushels to the acre, which will yield 

 to the soil precisely what grass most requires, viz.: silicate of potash,, for the formation of their 

 stems — without which such formation is impossible. Ashes neutralize acids in soils, which 



