322 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



]y afford ihem an opportunity of gratifying their 

 taste, but the superior gratification of exercis 

 ing their charitable dispositions in releasing 

 their societies from the expences of publication. 

 That science, united with practical agriculture, 

 is useful for rendering theory more perfect, is 

 a point fully established, and nothing is better 

 fitted to awaken the attention of the curious 

 farmer, call his genius into action, and fit him 

 for correct and useful observation, than an inti- 

 mate knowledge of the soil he cultivates. ]J. 

 " oshire County, April 27, 1824. 



Hamps: 



LEACHED ASHES AS A MANURE. 

 Tt the Editor of the JYtic England Farmer, 



Sir, — I wish to inquire of you and of youf 

 correspondents, your opinion relative to the use- 

 fulness of leached ashes as a manure. Resid- 

 ing near a pot-ash establishment, 1 can obtain 

 this substance with little cost, but am prevented 

 a plentiful use of it b}' the opinion current a- 

 moDg my neighbors, that the final affect of it 

 will be detrimental to my land. As my experi- 

 ments do not extend beyond three years back, 

 1 am not able to judge correctly on this ques- 

 tion. So far, however, as my experience has 

 gone, the result of it has been uniformly fa- 

 vorable. It is said, by those who are opposed 

 to leached ashes, that they ultimately leave the 

 land cold and lifeless, and almost incapable of 

 resuscitation. Your ideas on this subject and 

 those of any of your correspondents who may 

 have made sufficient experiment, will no doubt 

 be welcome to many agriculturalists, as they 

 certainly will to your subscriber. B. 



Duckfidd, Maine, April 20, 1824. 

 ET THE EDITOR. We have but little experimental 

 knowledge of the properties of ashes, asamftnure having 

 never used that substance for thai purpose, except as an 

 application to the hillsof Indian cam soon after the young 

 plants had made thejr appearance. We ■will, however, 

 communicate what we have been able to cull from 

 book?, and obtained from other sources of information. 

 Dr. Deane says that " ashes are Hot only a valuable 

 manure, but an excellent antidote to the rapaciousness 

 of worms and other insects. Therefore they are a more 

 proper manure for all those plants which are liable to 

 suffer by worms and insects ; such as cabbages, turnips, 

 peas, and other pulse. They should be spread evenly, 

 and not in too great quantity. 



" Wood ashes is an excellent nourishment for the 

 roots of trees. 



" Ashes of all kinds are a good ingredient in com- 

 posts which are kept under cover. But when they 

 are iaid upon land unmixed they should be spread as 

 . evenly as possible. They are thought to do better on 

 the top of the surface than when buried in the soil ". 

 for there is nothing in them that will evaporate. 

 Their tendency is only downwards ; and their salts 

 will soon sink too low, if they be put under the sur- 

 face. If they are spread upon ground, which has ten- 

 der plants, it should be done just before a rain, which 

 will dissolve and soften their acrimony : for tender 

 plants, when the weather is dry, will be apt to be in- 

 jured by them ; at least, if they are in contact with 

 the stems or leaves. 



" Ashes in their full strength are certainly best for 

 manure ; and they will not be iu full strength, unless 

 they be kept dry ; nor will it be easy to spread them 

 properly. And they should not be laid on lands long 

 before there are roots to be nourished by them, lest the 

 rains rob them of their salts, by washing them into the 



(the Italian straw being much fitter for the pv 

 pose than that grown in England,) the legis 

 ture has imposed the duty of 17 shillings a 

 on the plat not made up, and a still smaller o 

 of b per cent, ad valoremonXhe straw. In c« 

 sequence of this, Mr. Bigg, a straw manutac 

 rer, imported some time ago a consideral 

 quantity of prepared straw from Leghorn, w 

 a view of attempting its manufacture in tl 

 country, but not succeeding to his wish, 

 placed the straw in the hands of Mr. Parry. 

 Mr. Parry began by acquiring, himself, the i 

 of platting according to the Leghorn methi 

 he then taught it to other persons with su 

 success, that he has now above seventy peep 

 women and children, constantly employed 

 the manufacture. For these spirited and si 

 cesstul exertions the society conferred on J 



hollows, or by sinking them to too great a depth in the 

 soil. A few bushels on an acre are a good dressing for 

 grass lands that are low and inclining to be mossy. But 

 ashes Irom which lye has been drawn have no small 

 degree of virtue in them. The earthy particles are but 

 little diminished ; and some of the saline particles re- 

 main in them, especially in soaper''s waste which has 

 lime mixed with it." 



The last American edition of Dr. Willich's Domestic 

 Encyclopedia, under the head of ".4s/(ei" observes 

 that " Leached ashes are much used, in some parts of 

 the United States as a manure. Great quantities are 

 annually taken from the city of Philadelphia to Long 

 Island for that purpose. They cost here 40 cents per 

 one horse cart load, and commonly bring $1, 50, when 

 delivered. From a paper in the first volume of the 

 JVeui York Agricultural Sociely''s Transactions by Mons. 



E. L'Hommidieu, it appears; that ashes succeed fc"«j p;V'r^'ihe"honorary'inedarabove mentioned,' 

 on dry loamy lands, or loaM mi^fd with sand. H 's) condition of his disclosing to the society I 

 considered as the cheapest manure that can be procur- 1 particulars of the mode of platting accord! 

 ed. Ten loads of this manure, on poor land, will pro- 1,0 ,hg Kalian njgthod. This they did in ore 

 duce ordinarily twenty-five bushels of wheat, which. j|,ai [,y giving the same a place in their Tra 

 exceeds by five dollars the expense of the manure, and actions they might communicate them gener 

 the $5 pays for the expense of labor in raising the crop |y to those interested in obtaining employrai 

 of hay of between two and two and an half tons per acre 1 for '.he poor in the agricultural districts,. 

 v/hic\\itu>ill continue todo for a great number of yean, i contributing to the revival and improvement 

 No manure continues so long on the ground as ai/ie«.")a manufacture at once healthful and domesi 

 Sir John Sinclair says [Code of Agriculture, Appen- and particularly valuable as accustoming cl 

 dix, page 27.] " wood ashes are certainly a valuable 'dren to habits of industry without the impo 

 manure, and are peculiarly well calculated {or gravelly .tiow of any hurtful degree of bodily labor. 

 soils and loams ; forty bushels per acre is the common I The U. S. Gazette from which these Nos. are extts 

 quantity, and spring the proper season for their appli- 

 cation ; if rain succeeds the effect may be relied on. 

 The reader will perceive that Dr. Deane's description 

 of the kind of soil to which ashes may be properly ap- 

 plied as manure is entirely ditferent from the soil for 

 which ashes are recommended by the other writers 

 above quoted. Dr. Deane advises their application to 

 loto and moist land ; and we believe they have gene- 

 rally, been so applied in New-England. But they are 

 successfully used oa Long Island as an application to 

 " dry loamy lands, or loam mixed with sand." Sir 

 John Sinclair says they "are peculiaily well calculat- 

 ed for gravelly soils and loams.'''' Perhaps it is owing 

 to the »i«-a/)/)/»co?ion of this manure that the opinion 

 prevails in some parts of New England mentioned by 

 our correspondent, that ashes " leave the land cold and 

 lifeless and almost incapable of resuscitation." Ash- 

 es, when the wood has been pretty thoroughly burnt, 

 compose something like the earthy or fossil manures, 

 and form a part of the soil. They appear to possess an 

 attraction for moisture, and if applied to a soil, natu- 

 rally wet they increase its defects and diminish its fer- 

 tility, by making it more wet than it was before the ap- 

 plication. We might with nearly as much propriety 

 apply clay to clayey soil, or stiff loam, as add ashes 

 to a moist soil. Such arc our views of this subject, 

 but, perhaps, they are erroneous, and if so, we would 

 thank any of our readers or correspondents, who would 

 condescend to point out our eiror. 



ed gives, next succeeding the above, a communical 

 from Mr. Parry, describing the manner in which) 

 Leghorn hats are platted, or braided and sewed 

 stitched together. The communication, however, 

 fers to figures in the Transactions of the Society of Jl 

 a publication which we have not been able to pro«( 

 We have therefore substituted the following from 

 London Mechanics Journal, which appears to be 

 same in substance, although there is some variatioi 

 the mode of describing the process. — Ed. JV. E. F«fc< 



On the Manvfacture of Straw and Grass Bonnets. 



No. IIL 

 The Large Silver Medal was this Session given to Mr. 

 John Parry, Little Mitchell Street, Bartholomew 

 Square, for the Manufacture of Leghorn Plat from 

 Straw imported from Italy. Specimens of the Straw 

 and of the Plat made therefrom, have been placed 

 in the Society''s Repository. 

 For the protection of our domestic manufac- 

 ture of plaited straw, and to encourage at the 

 same time the importation of the raw material, 



