142 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



had been applied, even to the last rast of the shovel, 

 was nearly double the height and i-.xiiriance of the 

 other, and far better loadc*: v i:!i ! 1 >ssoms ; and here 

 I said, my friend, is the iine up to which my turf- 

 ashes, of which you disadvised the use, have been 

 applied. Fortunately, in spreading, it run out on this 

 land, and thus has afforded me an opportunity of 

 again consulting with you as to its usefulness. 



My mode of burning has also been heretofore de- 

 scribed in the Cultivator, and my. experience has 

 convinced me of the policy of smothering the fire, 

 and burning the turf as slowly, and confining as much 

 of the smoke during the combustion as possible. 

 My heaps are generally four to six weeks in burn- 

 ing. That the turf is* purely vegetable will be per- 

 ceived from the fact that" twenty cart-loads of turf 

 are necessary to produce one of ashes. Sand or 

 clay are not destructible by combustion, and would, 

 if present, have been found still the same in bulk 

 and visible to the eye ; none, however, can be dis- 

 covered in the ashes ; and this may be considered as 

 a fair method of testing the question as to how much 

 of mossy-earth the turf contains. 



The correspondent in the Cultivator before al- 

 luded to queries as to the application of sulphuric acid 

 for converting turf into manure, and for fertilizing a 

 turf soil. This induces me to call attention to facts 

 which have ever been witnessed by me : around al- 

 most every opening of the heap through which the 

 smoke issues, an oily substance resembling sulphur 

 will be perceived. Bottoming, before covering them 

 with litter, the shelters under my barn and sheds, as I 

 always do, to the height of about twelve inches, with 

 turf, in order that it may absorb the stale and moist- 

 ure of the place, I have observed that though, when 

 taken there dry from the swamp, the turf is perfectly 

 devoid of all smell, after having been thus used it 

 becomes as sensibly acid to the smell as the most 

 sour lemon. In turning it over, the acid exhalation 

 cannot but be perceptible to every by-stauder. 



