28 FERTILIZERS. 



ashes. Probably this is one of the reasons why the soil 

 from chip-waste is so good a fertilizer. 



TAN ASH. This is a very light ash, and is considered 

 by soap-makers as very poor in potash ; the lye from it 

 being " about equal in strength to pump-water," as one told 

 me. Nevertheless, there is value in it, especially on low 

 grass-land, probably from the lime, magnesia, etc., in its 

 composition. It sells for a low figure, less than half the 

 price of ordinary ashes. 



BRICK-KILN ASHES. These always come mixed more 

 or less with broken brick and burnt clay, and are worth no 

 more than the ashes made from the wood used in burning 

 the brick. The mass is worth from five to seventeen cents 

 per bushel. 



LIME-KILN ASHES. These are usually a little wood 

 ashes mixed with five or six times their weight of particles 

 of lime partly burnt. Some analyze of less value than air- 

 slacked lime. A few years ago I examined a sample from 

 some thousands of bushels offered me at sixteen cents per 

 bushel : a common sieve took out over half its weight of 

 worthless limestone, leaving the remainder largely made 

 up of smaller particles of the same. The lot would have 

 been dear at eight cents per bushel. 



Ashes from bushes, bark of trees, and animals, are richer 

 in potash than those from the body wood ; and those from 

 cultivated trees are said to be richer than those made from 

 trees of wild growth. 



BURNT SOIL. Where stumps, bushes, and sods are 

 burned, there is left a mass of red-colored, light, ash-like resi- 

 due. This, farmers usually call ashes. Bear in mind our 

 axiom, that, in manure matters, nothing more can come out 

 than goes in. The real ashes, therefore, in such heaps, must 

 bear the usual proportion to the vegetable matter burned. 

 By this measure to guide us, we must conclude that but a 



