ASHES. 



per cent 



Silica 35 



Ciilorine 13 



Potash and soda ... 50 



Sulphuric acid .... 2 



Too 



So that it was a mixture of soluble 

 silicates and clilondes with a little 

 sulphate of potash and soda. These 

 soluble silicates will find an easy ad- 

 mission into the roots of plants, and 

 will readily supply to the young stems 

 of the corn plants and grasses the 

 silica which is indispensable to their 

 healthy growth. 



Turf or peat ashes, obtained by the 

 burning of peat of various qualities, 

 are also applied with advantage to 

 the land in many districts. They con- 

 sist of a mixture lu which gypsum is 

 usually the predominating useful in- 

 gredient, the "alkaline salts being 

 present in very small proportion. 

 Tlie following table exhibits the com- 

 position of some varieties of ashes 

 from the peat of Holland and from 

 the heath of Luneburg, examined by 

 Sprengel : 



In the most useful varieties of 

 these ashes it appears, from the above 

 analyses, that lime abounds, partly 

 in combination with sulphuric and 

 phosphoric acids, forming gypsum 

 and phosphate of lime, and partly 

 with carbonic acid, forming carbon- 

 ate. These compounds of lime, there- 

 fore, may be regarded as the active 

 ingredients of peat ashes. 



Yet the small quantity of saline 

 matter they contain is not to be con- 



sidered as wholly without effect ; for 

 the ashes are often applied to the 

 land to the extent of two tons an 

 acre, a quantity which, even when 

 the proportion of alkali does not e.x- 

 ceed one per cent., will contain 45 

 lbs. of potash or soda, equal to twice 

 that weight of sulphates or of com- 

 mon salt. To the minute quantity 

 of saline matters present in them, 

 therefore, peat ashes may owe a por- 

 tion o) their beneficial influence, and 

 to the almost total absence of such 

 compounds from the less valuable 

 sorts their inferior estimation may 

 have in part arisen. 



In Holland, when applied to the 

 corn crops, they are either ploughed 

 in, drilled with the seed, or applied 

 as a top-dressing to the young shoots 

 in autumn or spring. Lucern, clo- 

 ver, and meadow grass are dressed 

 with it in spring at the rate of 15 to 

 IS cwt. per acre, and the latter a 

 second time with an equal quantity 

 after the first cutting. In Belgium 

 the ashes are applied to clover, rape, 

 potatoes, flax, and pease. In Lune- 

 burg, the turf ash which abounds in 

 oxide of iron is applied at the rate of 

 3 or 4 tons per acre, and by this 

 means the physical character of the 

 clay soils, as well as their chemical 

 constitution, is altered and improved. 



In England peat is in many places 

 burned for the sake of the ashes it 

 yields. The soil from beneath which 

 the turf is taken abounds in lime, 

 and the ashes are said to contain 

 from one fourth to one third of their 

 weight of gypsum. They are used 

 largely both in Berksiiire and Hamp- 

 shire, and are chiefly applied to green 

 crops, and especially to clover, at ihc 

 rate of 50 bushels. 



Coal ashes are a mixture of which 

 the composition is very variable ; 

 they consist, however, in general, of 

 lime, often in the state of gypsum, of 

 silica, and of alumina, mixed with a 

 quantity of bulky and porous cinders 

 or half-burned coal. The ash of a 

 coal from St. Etienne, in France, af- 

 ter all the carbonaceous matter had 

 been burned away, was found by Ear- 

 thier to consist of 



4i 



