MANURES. 37 



"The ashes produced by the combustion of wood in our com- 

 mon domestic fires, give rise to some very remarkable results. 

 Without being leached, these ashes are much too active; but 

 after having been deprived, by the action of water, of nearly 

 all their salts, and employed in this state, under the name of 

 buck-ashes, [leached,] they still produce great effect. 



The action of the buck-ashes is most powerful upon moist lands and mea- 

 dows, in which they not only facilitate the growth of useful plants, but if em- 

 ployed constantly for several years, they will free the soil from weeds. By the 

 use of them, land constantly drenched with water may be freed from rushes, 

 and prepared for yielding clover and other plants of good kinds. Chaptal. 



It has been frequently supposed that ashes applied to wet 

 heavy soils is injurious. This is probably owing to the appli- 

 cation being too uneven, and in too large quantities, and to the 

 want of mixing them intimately with the soil. When applied 

 to wet lands the ashes are immediately dissolved, and it may 

 be that the plants cannot take up the active properties with 

 sufficient rapidity, and it therefore, in many instances, passes off 

 in its dissolved state into the sub-soil; but how this should oc- 

 casion moss and barrenness is beyond our comprehension. 

 The author just quoted says, "Wood-ashes possess the double 

 property of amending a wet and clayey soil by dividing and 

 drying it, and of promoting vegetation by the salts they con- 

 tain." It is also found to succeed well on dry loamy lands, or 

 loam mixed with sand. 



It is well known, that the evenly spread and intimately in- 

 termixed layer of ashes which soils receive by burning the turf, 

 produce extraordinary fertilizing effects upon grass lands 

 effects which are visible for years. 



One principal reason why leached ashes is so valuable as a 

 manure, appears to have been mostly overlooked, and that is 

 the quantity of time they contain, which substance is placed in 

 considerable quantities at the bottom of the vats or leaches in 

 all asheries, to facilitate the labour of working, and is thrown 

 out with the ashes. 



This fact, taken in connection with the one that a large por- 

 tion of alkaline matter must remain in all ashes after leaching, 

 accounts for the benefit they render to wet sour soils, by neu- 

 tralizing such acid, and promoting the decomposition of vegeta- 

 ble matter, which, in such earths, always proceeds slowly, 

 while at the same time they prevent adhesion in the soil, and 

 enable the roots of plants to seek their sustenance freely. On 

 light sandy soils they give consistency, and by the existing 

 action of their still abundant salts effectually promote vegeta- 

 tion. 



Peat-ashes, properly burnt, afford an excellent manure for 

 4 





