VIH.. XXI. NO. 33. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



181 



llie heart of man could ileairc ; but, to a line, whero 

 the cinders stopped, the plant was as tliin ae its 

 ffrowtli w!is stinted and poor — scarcely worth cut- 

 tin'T. This differonco in product we ascribed to 

 the ntti'r impossibility of the roots of the plants de- 

 ivinjr any benefit from the air, and but partial from 

 the rniii, as the baked condition of the clay almost 

 precliuli'd the operation of percolation, and the wa- 

 ter stood in puddles on the surface, although this 

 part of the ground was the most elevated. Our 

 object being to pet the piece in timothy, as soon 

 we cut the millet, we spread 20 bushels of An- 

 thracite coal ashes on the 10 upper perches de- 

 scribed, plowed it in about four inches, rolled and 

 harrowed, and let"t it in that way until it was time 

 to prepare the whole for the timothy. We then 

 had the whole plowed seven inches deep, rolled, 

 and harrowed until we liad pulverized it as well as 

 t was susceptible of being made so. On the up- 

 per 10 perches, we spread 20 bushels more of an- 

 hracite coal ashes, which we harrowed in well. 

 We then sowed a peck and a half of timothy seed 

 Dn the whole piece. It all took equally well, and 

 yielded luxuriant cuttings of fine grass, there be- 

 ng no diflerence on the piece except that the part 

 where the coal ashes had been applied, had a good 

 larpet of white clover, whereas there was but little 

 jr none on the rest. 



Finding that its action as above described had 

 nswered our expectations, in the spring of 1837, 

 vc top-dressed an acre of clover with it. It grew 

 n a piece of cold red clay, in bad tilth. The 

 )iece consisted of two acres. One half of the re- 

 naindcr of the piece was plastered, at the rate of 

 bushel to the acre. Where the anthracite coal 

 shes and plaster were sown, the clover was as 

 me as we ever saw, but on the remainder of the 

 ot, it was poor enough in all conscience. We 

 ubsequently put this lot in spring wheat, turning 

 n the clover-sward the previous fall, late, and sow- 

 ng the wheat early, the ensuing spring, the pro- 

 uct was good on the whole, but better whero it 

 .ad been plastered and ashed, and much the best 

 n the latter part. Tlie subsequent year we put 

 he whole piece in Mercer potatoes, manuring all 

 like and well, in the furrows ; the product was 

 ood, but decidedly best where the ashes had been 

 pplied. 



In the spring of 1838, we put in three acres of 

 orn, in a lot, manuring the whole, at the rate of 

 !0 double-horse cart loads of stable and barn-yard 

 nanure to the acre. On one acre we spread 100 

 ■ushels of leached ashes, on another we spread 100 

 'Ushels of anthracite coal ashes, and on the third, 

 lothing. The soil was a sand, inclining to loam, 

 esting upon a clay bottom. The corn proved a 

 air yield, but much more productive on the ashed 

 larts, which yielded at least one fourth more. It 

 jrew faster from the start, looked greener and 

 lealthier, and made more and larger ears. 



In llie spring of 1639, we planted a small bed 

 if the /amed "Tree Corn" in our garden. The 

 dot on which it grew lied low, and was too wet in 

 ainy seasons for corn, but as it was the only spot 

 vhich wo could appropriate to it, we thought we 

 vould overcome its inadaptation by heavy manur- 

 ng. We spread on 4 inches in depth of stable 

 nanure, had that trenched in 9 inches deep, then 

 lad 2 inches of cow dung spread thereon and turn- 

 !d in 4 inches deep, raking the ground well after 

 .'ach spading. We ,then spread on 2 inches of 

 street dirt, which we thoroughly raked in, so as to 

 ncorporate it willi the soil. We then laid off our 



bods in furrows 3 feet apart, and drojijicd the corn 

 2 feet asunder in the rows. It caine up well, but 

 owing to a succession of cold rains, the plants 

 turned yellow and appeared evidently dying. Judg- 

 ing that it was owing to the cold, and that it would 

 be necessary to impart heat to the soil, so as to 

 counteract the effect of the cold, we applied half a 

 pint of anthracite ashes to each hill, workinu it in 

 with the prongs of a small garden hoe. The con- 

 sequeuce was, that it acted like magic, changing 

 the color of the plants in a few days, from a sickly 

 hue to a dark healthful groLMi. The plot of Tree 

 corn yielded a tremendous crop, the which we, in 

 chief, ascribed to the plentiful dose of manure 

 which we gave it, but at the same time, we be- 

 lieved that the anthracite coal ashes rescued it, at 

 the onset, from the fate of stunted corn, and per- 

 formed its office in its subsequent growth. 



We used thorn in a compost of barn-yard and 

 stable manure in 1839, at the rate of 100 bushels of 

 ashes to 20 cartloads of manure, with which we 

 dressed an acre of sugar beets. The crop was a 

 good one — the soil a rather moist clay loam, rest- 

 ing on hard till. 



Why, we would ask, should any one " doubt their 

 utilil\f' or assert that they are positively injurious? 

 They are the product of that which was once vege 

 table matter, subsequently submitted to the action 

 of fire. We know that clay ashes and peat ashes 

 have been advantageously used as moliorators of 

 the soil, and why should not those from Anthracite 

 coal act equally potent and favorable.' We do not 

 recollect to have seen any analysis of them, but 

 judging from the character of the coal from which 

 they are produced, their appearance, and our expe- 

 rience in their action, as well as from the evidence 

 of our eye, we do think with the editors of the Ag- 

 riculturist, that they contain " highly concentrated 

 principles of nutrition, which only require the pro- 

 per, treatment, to add immensely to the fertility of 

 our vegetable gardens and farms." Nay, we will 

 go farther — they only require application, that be- 

 ing the only treatment necessary. 



May they not contain potash, in minute quanti- 

 ties, gypsum, carbon, and some of the phosphates ? 

 If so, in what are wood ashes superior, except in 

 the greater quantity of alkalies they contain ? In 

 what the chemists term the silicates of potash, we 

 suspect anthracite coal ashes abound to a mode- 

 rate extent, and we think we saw the evidences of 

 it in our little patch of wheat. But throwing these 

 suggestions as to their constituent properties en- 

 tirely aside, we have no lipsitancy in affirming that 

 these ashes are excellent as a manure, and from 

 what we have seen of their effects we believe them 

 to possess the property of nutrition, as well as be- 

 ing eminently stimulative ; and, of a certainty, no 

 one with half an eye will deny to them that of be- 

 ing an alterative, and well calculated to change 

 the texture of soils requiring amendment. 



In proof of their value as manure, we will very 

 briefly relate a remark made to us by a very ob- 

 servant market gardener. In a conversation had 

 with him upon the relative value of stable manure 

 and street dirt, after giving the preference to the 

 former, he observed that of late years, he thought 

 the street dirt had much improved in its fertilizing 

 qualities; but upon his saying, though he had no- 

 ticed the difference for sevei^l years he could not 

 account for it, we replied that we thought he might 

 refer it to the admixture with it of anthracite coal 

 ashes, that fuel having been introduced in that 

 time, and the ashes thrown into the street and 



forming a part of the substances scraped up and 

 sold as manure. Although the thought had never 

 struck him before, ho coincided with us in opinion, 

 and made the farther remark, that ho had for some 

 years noticed that the street dirt had become much 

 more lasting in its eflccts than formerly. 



While we have pen in hand, we will mention 

 that Anthracite coal ashes are extensively used, 

 and with great effect as manure, in the gardens 

 of I'ottsville, Penn., and ihat those of Bituminous 

 coal are as freely and effectively used in the neigh- 

 borhood of Richmond, Va. In speaking of the ef- 

 fects of ashes, Chaptal says — " the ashes of turf 

 and pit coal produce wonderful effects upon grass 

 lands. The first of these often contain gypsum, 

 but frccpiently only silica, alumina and oxide of 

 iron. From ashes of pit coal I have obtained by 

 analysis sulphuret of lime." The ashes of the 

 broum coal, we learn from Liebig, " are much es- 

 teemed in the Wettereau as manure for meadows 

 and moist land." We mention these facts merely 

 as corroborative incidents to show, that ashes from 

 various substances have been used for agricultural 

 purposes and always with decided benefits, and 

 among others, those of the Barilla, either leached 

 or unleaclied, is a powerful manure. — Ed. Ameri- 

 can Farmer. 



Jlpples. — We conversed a few days since, with 

 a gentleman lesidini; in the vicinity of Boston who 

 has now upwards of 30 acres of land in orcharding, 

 the trees in a fine healthy state, and in full bear- 

 ing. He was then scouring the 8tate for the pur- 

 pose of buying young vigorous trees, to enlarge 

 his orchard much beyond its present extent. 



When we saw hiiu, he said he had eight hun- 

 dred barrels of apples on hand, in prime order, for 

 »vhich he could have three dollars and a half a bar- 

 rel. 



He tells us that the demand for exportation is 

 limited only by the supply ; that to every part of 

 the globe, where American vessels go, they are a 

 profitable article of export, and that to an almost 

 unlimited extent. 



One merchant in Boston applied to him, last fall, 

 for 500 barrels of Baldwin apples, at two dollars 

 and a quarter a barrel, to ship to Calcutta. He 

 had shipped about the same quantity for several 

 previous seasons and with uniform success. Ship- 

 ments to England, the West Indies, South Ameri- 

 ca, the Mediterranean, and other places, give 

 equally good returns. 



'i'he apples of New England keep much better 

 than those which grow farther south, and are pre- 

 ferred for shipping on that account. — fVorcester 

 Spil- 



Beautiful Figures. — Massinu, a deaf and dumb 

 pupil of the AbbeRicard, gave the following beau- 

 tiful replies in writing to the questions put to him: 



Q. What is hope .' 



A. The blossom of happiness. 



Q,. What is gratitude ? 



A. The memory of the heart. 



Q. What is eternity ? 



A. The life-lime of God. 



It shows much more stupidity to be grave at a 

 good thing, than to be merry at a bad one ; and 

 of all ignorance, that which is silent is the least 

 productive, for praters may suggest an idea if they 

 cannot start one Lacon. 



