46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



plant wants to live on ; in the next place they favor the decora- 

 position of the soil, and make more ashes ; in the third place, 

 they give an appetite to the plant, so that it can feed on the air ; 

 and finally, they tend to fix the ammonia in the form of nitre, 

 which is one of the most valuable manures we have. 



Our Western soils, as you know, are very rich and fertile. 

 We carted ashes from the University and spread about forty 

 bushels to the acre on a piece of blue-grass land. The soil is 

 deep and rich naturally, but when we came to cut the grass we 

 cut two tons on this land to one on land where the ashes were 

 not applied. It would pay to give a good round price for ashes, 

 even if their effect was to be exhausted on the first crop ; but 

 I have no doubt that next year, the effect will be still more 

 marked. There is a great deal in this inorganic manure. 



A Member. Can you tell us anything about coal ashes ? 



Prof. Chadbourne. I will say that coal ashes differ wonder- 

 fully. Wood ashes, upon the whole, have about the same 

 chemical composition ; coal ashes are an entirely different thing. 

 The ash of coal is made up from the inorganic material that 

 was in the coal plants, just as in our plants, together with the 

 sand, the slate, the clay, the iron, and all the materials carried 

 in and deposited with the plants when the plants were deposited 

 to make the coal. Therefore, you see that these ashes are made 

 np largely, in many cases, of what we call fine sand and clay. 

 Some of our finest coal, like our best Lehigh coal, deposits but 

 very little material, and the ashes are composed mainly of the 

 inorganic material in the plants ; but then, they contain very 

 little of those active materials of which I have been speaking. 

 Those ashes, however, when they are fine, can be used to very 

 good purpose as an absorbent. They can be used round privies 

 and similar places, and put round trees, and they are better than 

 fine sand to make a clayey, tenacious soil soft and friable. So 

 that, indirectly, coal ashes are much more valuable than they 

 have had the credit of being. But, directly, I have never seen 

 any great advantage from them. 



A Member. What is the value of leached ashes as compared 

 with unleached ? 



Prof. Chadbourne. That question reminds me of the philo- 

 sophical remark of one of Dickens' characters, Jack Bunsby : 

 " The value of that observation depends upon the application of 



